South Korean island ‘shaking’ during live fire drill
South Korea’s military confirms the drill began at 5.30 GMT from an island near the maritime border, after an emergency UN Security Council meeting failed to agree on a way to defuse the crisis.
A journalist for news agency Reuters was in an air-raid shelter on Yeonpyeong island.
“I can’t tell exactly how many shells have been fired, some are distant and some are noisy,” Kim Do-gyun said.
“The bunker is shaking and people here are worried.”
Reuters said the firing drill ended after two hours, with no immediate indication of response from North Korea.
The last time Seoul conducted live-fire drills was on 23rd November. Pyongyang shelled the island, killing two civilians and two marines in the worst attack on South Korean territory since the Korean war ended in 1953.
South Korean officials said last week the North had been making military preparations similar to those observed ahead of last month’s clashes, including removing covers from coastal artillery and deploying some artillery batteries. Pyongyang had warned that it would strike even harder than before if the South went ahead with the drills.
Both sides have said they will use force to defend what they say is their territory off the west coast.
International concern
There had been international concern the standoff could spiral out of control. China and Russia cautioned Seoul against holding the exercise, while the United States backed South Korea’s right to go ahead.
China has long stood as North Korea’s major ally and economic backer, and the United States has said Beijing must do more to rein in Pyongyang. Beijing has sought to avoid becoming involved in the rift between its neighbours, and neither directly criticised Seoul’s plan to hold the military drill, nor Pyongyang’s threat to retaliate.
China’s representative to the Security Council, Wang Min, warned “the situation is perilous.”
“If a bloody clash breaks out on the Korean peninsula, that would first of all hurt the people on both sides of the peninsula and bring a national tragedy.”
The emergency Security Council meeting on Sunday was called by Russia to try and prevent an escalation of tensions, but a draft statement wasn’t agreed due to differences of opinion over whether to lay the blame on Pyongyang.
The bunker is shaking and people here are worried, journalist in South Korea
“The gaps that remain are unlikely to be bridged,” said the US ambassador to the UN, Susan Rice.
Western diplomats said China and Russia were pushing for an ambiguous statement that would not have blamed North Korea for the crisis, but would have called on both sides to exercise restraint.
Possible deal
US governor Bill Richardson visited Pyongyang to try to help ease tensions and won agreement from North Korea to allow UN nuclear inspectors to return, according to CNN. Inspectors were expelled in April 2009.
Pyongyang “agreed to allow international atomic energy agency personnel to return to a nuclear facility in the country and agreed to negotiate the sale of 12,000 … fuel rods and ship them to an outside country, presumably to South Korea”, the news organisation reported.