The North’s bombardment of this tiny South Korean island near a disputed maritime frontier killed four South Koreans and was the first such attack on a civilian area, raising fears of an escalation leading to a new war on the Korean peninsula. Seoul and Washington ratcheted up pressure on China to rein in its ally North Korea, and China urged both sides to show restraint.
Reporters allowed for the first time onto Yeonpyeong Island saw streets like a war zone, strewn with charred debris and wrinkled metal. Blackened drink bottles lay besides remains of a supermarket as coast guard officers patrolled in pairs past deserted offices and schools used by relief workers for meetings and meals.
Many residents had fled, but restaurant owner Lee In-ku, 46, joined a handful of villagers collecting belongings from houses that were not fully destroyed.
“It was a sea of fire,” Lee said of Tuesday’s attack.
“Many houses were burning and many people were just running around in confusion. It was real chaos.” President Lee Myung-bak said during an emergency meeting of top officials in Seoul that the country “should not let our guard down,” presidential spokesman Hong Sang-pyo said. “I think a similar North Korean provocation could come at any time.” Hong said that South Korea will increase ground troops on Yeonpyeong and four other islands in western waters in response to this week’s attack, reversing a 2006 decision calling for an eventual decrease. He declined to discuss specifics for the increase, but said troops there currently amount to about 4,000.
South Korean troops had returned fire and scrambled fighter jets in response to Tuesday’s attack.
In addition to the two marines and two civilians killed in the exchange, at least 18 people — most of them troops — were wounded on Yeonpyeong, which is home to military bases as well as a fishing community of 1,300 residents. It lies about 50 miles (80 kilometers) from South Korea’s western port of Incheon, and just 7 miles (11 kilometers) from North Korean shores.
The military was analyzing debris from North Korea’s artillery on the island and has not ruled out its use of thermobaric bombs, which burn more violently and increase casualties and property destruction, a Joint Chiefs of Staff official said. He asked not to be identified, saying he was not authorized to speak to reporters.
The two Koreas are required to abide by an armistice signed at the close of the three-year war, but the North does not recognize the maritime line drawn by UN forces in 1953 and considers South Korean maneuvers near Yeonpyeong island a violation of its territory. South Korea was conducting firing drills, though not in North Korea’s direction, when the North Korean artillery barrage came Tuesday.
The attack added to animosity from the March sinking of a South Korean warship in nearby waters that killed 46 sailors in the worst military attack on the nation since the Korean War.
The shelling also comes as North Korea is undergoing a delicate transition of power from leader Kim Jong Il to his young son Kim Jong Un. The son, who is in late 20s, was made a four-star general and nominated to high-ranking Workers’ Party posts in the first steps toward eventually succeeding his father.
North Korea’s state news agency reported Monday — the day before the attack — that North Korean leader Kim Jong Il, his son and apparent heir Kim Jong Un and other key political and military figures visited duck and fish farms in an area about 60 miles (100 kilometers) from the base where the artillery barrage was launched.
The attack alarmed world leaders including President Barack Obama, who reaffirmed plans for joint maneuvers with Seoul involving a nuclear-powered aircraft carrier in the Yellow Sea starting Sunday. The drill were previously scheduled, but are sure to infuriate North Korea.
The North made no specific mention of those exercises in a statement but warned that its military would launch “strong physical retaliations without hesitation if South Korean warmongers carry out reckless military provocations.” The North also said Washington was to blame for the South Korean artillery drills on Yeonpyeong that prompted the North’s artillery barrage Tuesday.
Washington “should thoroughly control South Korea,” it said. The warning was issued by North Korea’s military mission at the truce village of Panmunjom and was carried by the official Korean Central News Agency.
South Korea says its artillery exercises Tuesday were aimed away from North Korea, and a top military official on the island Thursday showed reporters a trajectory heading to the southwest.
“North Korea argues that we fired at them first, but this is the direction that we fired,” Lt. Gen. Joo Jong-hwa said.
Meanwhile, the Obama administration urged China to rein in ally North Korea, with the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, Adm. Mike Mullen, saying: “We really think it’s important for the international community to lead, but in particular China.” South Korea said it will increase diplomatic efforts to get China, which supplied North Korea with troops during the Korean War and remains its main ally and biggest benefactor, to put pressure on Pyongyang.
Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao called on all sides to show “maximum restraint.” He repeated calls for renewed six-nation talks aimed at persuading North Korea to dismantle its nuclear programs. Wen said those talks, involving the two Koreas, China, Russia, Japan and the United States, are the best way to ensure stability on the peninsula and its denuclearization.
On Thursday, the coast guard transported two white coffins carrying the bodies of civilians pulled from the rubble Wednesday.
In Seongnam just outside Seoul, military officers, family members and dignitaries mourned the two marines killed in the attack, laying flowers and burning incense at an altar.
Funerals are to take place Saturday.
Former President Kim Young-sam used the occasion to criticize North Korean leader Kim Jong Il, saying he is “not a human,” and said that a China that defends North Korea “can never be trusted,” the Yonhap news agency reported. Kim also said that South Korea’s response to the attack was insufficient.
