SKorean troops bracing NKorean attack for possible

SKorean troops bracing NKorean attack for possible: YEONPYEONG ISLAND, South Korea—A destroyer prowled the sea and fighter jets screamed across the skies Tuesday as South Korea braced for possible North Korean surprise attacks a day after launching provocative artillery drills on an island the North shelled last month.

North Korea has so far backed off threats to strike the South again for the live-fire military drills on Yeonpyeong Island, a tiny enclave of fishing communities and military bases within sight of North Korean shores.

Pyongyang considers the waters around the island its territory, and similar drills last month triggered a North Korean artillery barrage that killed four South Koreans, including two construction workers, in the first attack targeting civilian areas since the 1950-53 Korean War.

Top officials defended South Korea's decision to carry out more drills despite calls in some quarters for restraint amid fears of all-out war, and said South Korea's military was prepared for any future North Korean aggression.

President Lee Myung-bak, in the wake of intense criticism over his handling of last month's attack, gathered his national security advisers for strategic talks Tuesday. Accused of acting too slowly and too weakly last month, his government has threatened airstrikes if hit again and ordered more troops on front-line islands.

Seoul's decision to push ahead with the routine drills in the face of North Korean threats of nuclear war and pressure from China and Russia ndicate a new willingness by Lee's government to use provocations of its own to counter North Korean aggression. Seoul has already cut aid to the impoverished North and refused to participate in moneymaking joint tourism projects in North Korea.

"When it provokes, we will firmly punish North Korea," Defense Minister Kim Kwan-jin told lawmakers before leaving for the security meeting.


Kim acknowledged facing pressure to cancel the drills. But leaders "relieved our people's anxiety about security and created a sense of unity with firm and consistent military measures."

Pyongyang denounced the 90-minute exercise as a "reckless military provocation" but held its fire. However, the Korean People's Army showed no signs of pulling back.

SA-2 ground-to-air missile and ground-to-ship missiles have been deployed in the west and are poised to fire artillery, South Korea's Yonhap news agency reported, citing an unidentified military official.

South Korean fighter jets continued patrolling the skies and an Aegis-equipped destroyer was ready to counter any possible provocation, the Defense Ministry said.

A senior South Korean government official said Tuesday that the lack of response so far does not mean Pyongyang is backing down, noting that North Korea thrives on "surprise" attacks. The official spoke on condition of anonymity due to the sensitivity of the matter.

Troops also were on alert at the border amid plans Tuesday to light up a 100-foot-tall (30-meter-tall) steel Christmas tree that would be visible North Koreans living near the Demilitarized Zone dividing the two Koreas.

South Korea had stopped the longtime practice of lighting the huge Christmas tree—seen by secular North Korea as a propaganda move—years ago when it halted routine propaganda campaigns during a period of warming ties.

The Christmas lights will go on again at the western mountain peak known as Aegibong for the first time in seven years, officials said. Kim, the defense minister, said South Korea might also use loudspeakers installed near the border as a propaganda tool.

On Yeonpyeong Island, a day after scrambling to take cover in underground bunkers, the streets were mostly empty apart from an occasional stray dog. One islander drove a tractor among piles of trash; others lined up at a bank as troops patrolled the coast.

A fisherman said he wanted a government survey of the damage so islanders can get compensation. The November attacks left the island in ruins, with homes and businesses reduced to charred rubble.

"I also wish South Korea and North Korea can maintain conciliatory gestures," said Park Cheon-hoon, 54.

The Korean peninsula remains in a state of war because the Koreas' three-year conflict ended in a truce, not a peace treaty, in 1953.

However, North Korea does not recognize the western sea border drawn by U.N. forces, and there have been several bloody naval skirmishes have occurred in recent years along the Koreas' disputed western sea border, which the North does not recognize.

Meanwhile, New Mexico Gov. Bill Richardson praised North Korea's "statesmanlike" restraint as he wrapped up a four-day trip to North Korea.

Richardson, a former U.S. ambassador to the United Nations who has served as an unofficial envoy to North Korea in the past, told Associated Press Television News in Pyongyang that his trip yielded "positive" results.

He later said in Beijing that the trip provided an opening for a resumption of multinational talks on dismantling the country's nuclear program. North Korea pulled out of six-nation talks to provide Pyongyang with aid in exchange for disarmament in April 2009, but since has said it is willing to resume them.

Richardson said North Korean officials agreed to let U.N. atomic inspectors visit its main nuclear complex to make sure the facility is not producing enriched uranium for a nuclear bomb.

Inspectors were expelled last year, and North Korean scientists since have shown a visiting American scientist a new, highly advanced uranium enrichment facility that could give it a second way to make atomic bombs, in addition to its plutonium program.

U.S. State Department spokesman P.J. Crowley said if North Korea is serious about accepting inspectors, it should let the International Atomic Energy Agency know.

"North Korea talks a great game. They always do," Crowley said in Washington. "The real issue is what will they do."

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