War Rhetoric Rises Between Koreas
VOA News 23 December 2010
North and South Korea have increased their rhetoric against one another as the South conducted more military exercises.
North Korea said Thursday it is ready to use its nuclear deterrent in what it called a "sacred war" if it is provoked. Armed forces minister Kim Yong Chun was quoted by the North Korean news agency as saying that South Korea was deliberately pushing the situation to the brink of war.
South Korean President Lee Myung-bak visited with soldiers at a base near the border Thursday, saying the South should answer any new attack from the North with a powerful counter-attack. Lee said he had been mistaken to think patience can bring peace to the Korean peninsula.
South Korean air and ground forces staged their latest military exercise earlier Thursday, pounding a snowy valley just 30 kilometers from the border with bombs and munitions from tanks, artillery, rocket launchers and F-15 warplanes. Naval forces continued a third day of drills off the country's east coast.
A U.S. State Department spokesman said Thursday the region needs constructive actions, not heated rhetoric from North Korea.
South Korean military officials said the combined air and ground exercise at a firing range at Pocheon was the largest of its kind ever conducted during the winter months. Local residents and a handful of reporters looked on as 800 troops with heavy weapons pounded their targets for almost three-quarters of an hour.
South Korean officials said Wednesday that the exercise, which was much larger than previous drills at the base, was organized in response to North Korea's artillery attack on Yeonpyeong Island last month. Two soldiers and two civilians were killed in the attack, which came during a South Korean live-firing exercise.
The South resumed live firing exercises from the island for the first time Monday, defying threats from the North of overwhelming retaliation. The exercise ended without incident and the North declared it was "not worth" its trouble to respond.
Some information for this report provided by AFP, AP and Reuters.
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