Army, Air Force stage massive live-fire drill

By Lee Tae-hoon

The country’s Army and Air Force held their largest-ever joint live-fire exercise Thursday at a range, some 20 kilometers south of the border with North Korea, mobilizing some 800 troops and 105 weapons.

In an apparent show of force following the North’s deadly attack on a border island last month, the military demonstrated its readiness to immediately strike back against possible enemies with precision in the case of a sudden provocation.

The one-day joint drill displayed many of the country’s heavy combat equipment, including K9 self-propelled howitzers, METIS-M anti-tank missiles, multi-rocket launchers, twin 30mm self-propelled anti-aircraft vehicles and AH-1S Cobra attack helicopters, as well as F-15K and KF-16 fighter jets.

The Navy, meanwhile, continued its four-day firing exercise, which began Wednesday, in the East Sea as part of the ongoing efforts to deter the North’s intrusions by warships or submarines.

The Navy deployed six warships and Lynx antisubmarine helicopters in the drill, which was carried out in waters some 100 kilometers south of the inter-Korean maritime border.

There has been no immediate response from the North, which has remained silent despite repeated vows of retaliation.

South Korea’s military, which had put border units on their highest alert level since North Korea’s artillery attack on Yeonpyeong Island last month, lowered the status by one level, an official at the Joint Chiefs of Staff (JCS) said.

“The military downgraded the highest alert level of ‘jindogae 1’ to ‘jindogae 2’ Wednesday on five northernmost islands near the maritime border off the west coast and other frontline areas,” JCS spokesman Park Bok-hyun told The Korea Times.

“The military remained on the highest alert over the past month against possible armed provocation from Pyongyang.”

However, the military will continue to maintain a heightened surveillance level and keep additional troops deployed in high-tension areas, another JCS official said, asking for anonymity.

The five-grade WATCHCON surveillance alert has been raised to level 2, following the communist North’s surprise attack on Yeonpyeong in the West Sea on Nov. 23, he added.

Tension has noticeably eased on the peninsula as the North’s military has refrained from using force despite its earlier threats of “deadly retaliation” against the South.

Pyongyang vowed to strike back, if Seoul pushed ahead with a live-fire artillery exercise on Yeonpyeong, Monday.

However, after the drill during which K-9 self-propelled howitzers, Vulcan guns, an Aegis destroyer and F-15K fighter jets were mobilized, the North hinted that it may refrain from any immediate retaliation, saying, “We have no interest in responding to each one of such despicable military provocations.”

The South had to remain on full alert for a possible North Korean attack as tension grew Tuesday, following the lighting up of a giant “Christmas tower” near the border with North Korea for the first time in seven years.

The South feared that the North, which regards religion as a security threat, might conduct an artillery attack against the tower as Pyongyang considers the glowing structure as psychological warfare.

A Seoul-based church had placed Christmas lights on a steel tower at a mountain peak, known as Aegibong, every year between 1954 and 2003. The lighting had been barred since 2004 under an agreement with the North to end border propaganda activity.