By Jung Sung-ki
It appears North Korean leader Kim Jong-il is found to have visited a local fish farm near an artillery base in the West Sea before Tuesday’s deadly shelling of a South Korean island, according to a picture released by the North’s official Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) Thursday.
The picture has stoked speculation that the attack on Yeonpyeong Island was approved by the reclusive leader.
The picture shows Kim’s youngest son, Jong-un, and Kim Myong-guk, a four-star general and chief of the People’s Army General Staff in charge of operations, accompanying the leader.
The farm is in Ryongyon, South Hwanghae Province, which faces South Korea’s Baengnyeong Island and is referred to as a strategic post with a heavy concentration of artillery batteries just like Gangryeong, from where North Korea fired some 170 shells at the island in the South.
“Kim Jong-il used to visit nearby military bases whenever he takes on-the-spot tours of the local provinces,” a military source said. “So it’s likely that he visited a base of the frontline Fourth Corps before the attack.”
The fact that Gen. Kim accompanied Kim supports that belief, he said. “The real purpose of Kim’s trip to South Hwanghae Province must have been to check up on the firing plans just before the attack,” another government source said. “Kim Myong-guk probably gave a briefing on the preparations and got the final approval from Kim Jong-il.”
Other top military brass who accompanied the North Korean leader includes Hyon Chol-hae, director of the National Defense Commission’s Standing Bureau and Gen. Ri Myong-su, director of the National Defense Commission’s Administration Department.
The North Korean army is believed to have deployed about 1,000 artillery devices inside caves dug into cliffs along a stretch of the North’s western coastline. The guns have firing ranges of 12 and 27 kilometers.