South Korea to stage firing drills but avoid border

SOUTH KOREA will stage naval firing drills at 23 venues from today, but will exclude areas near the disputed sea border with North Korea, the military said.

The military plans to stage live-fire drills of the coast around the Korean peninsula from December 27 to 31, the Joint Chiefs of Staff said yesterday.

But the firing exercise will not be held near the tense maritime border with the North on the Yellow Sea, according to coordinates given by the government.

“This is part of a regular practice involving army, naval and air forces . . . and the state-run Agency for Defence Development will also conduct ammunition tests off the west coast,” the JCS spokesman told reporters.

Seoul on December 20 staged a live-fire artillery exercise on Yeonpyeong island, a border island that was shelled by the North in an attack that killed four South Koreans, including two civilians.

The first live-fire drill at the embattled island since the November 23 bombardment drew a flurry of angry remarks from Pyongyang which, however, did not retaliate.

Cross-border tension has been acute since last month’s shelling, the first attack on a civilian area since the 1950-1953 Korean War.

Pyongyang said it was retaliating for a South Korean firing drill that dropped shells into waters that it claims are North Korean territory.

Meanwhile, defence ministers from South Korea and China will hold talks in Beijing in February, South Korea’s defence ministry said.

“South Korea’s Defence Minister, Kim Kwan-jin, and his Chinese counterpart, Liang Guanglie, plan to meet in Beijing in February. Details of the meeting agenda have not been discussed yet,” a spokesperson for South Korea’s ministry said.

South Korean president Lee Myung-bak in November appointed Kim as new defence minister after Kim’s predecessor resigned after criticism of what was perceived as a weak response to aggression from the North, including a submarine attack in March and the shelling of Yeonpyeong island.

North Korea had on Thursday threatened a nuclear “sacred war” and South Korea vowed a “merciless counter-attack” against any fresh provocations as both sides sharpened their rhetoric after military exercises in the South.

Pyongyang has offered to re-admit UN inspectors concerned about its nuclear weapons programme, prompting speculation that six-party talks including the North may resume, and the worst of the most recent crisis may be over.