Seoul fears another attack by N Korea

Four South Koreans were killed in clashes last week

 “There is a high possibility that the North will make an additional attack,” Won Sei-hoon, director of the National Intelligence Service, was quoted by Reuters as telling a parliamentary committee meeting.

Defence Minister Kim Tae-young has also warned there was an “ample possibility” the North might stage another provocation once the maritime maneuvres ended, Reuters said.

The artillery attack last week killed two marines and two civilians on the South Korean island of Yeonpyeong, close to the countries’ disputed maritime border in the Yellow Sea. The barrages from the North, which claimed it was provoked by live artillery fire by the South, was the first attack on a civilian area since the end of the 1950-53 Korean War.

North Korea, through its official news agency, called the joint drills involving dozens of allied fighter-bombers, surveillance planes and an aircraft carrier strike group “a dangerous act” that came “at a time when the danger of war is mounting”. Pyongyang said the exercises were “aimed at invading” North Korea.

A South Korean defence ministry spokesman said more military exercises were being planned but he declined to say if they would be staged next week. “They will be held at the appropriate time and under the appropriate conditions,” he said.

In Beijing, meanwhile, a senior member of the North Korean regime on Wednesday met Chinese officials in what both sides said was a previously arranged visit. Choe Tae-bok, the chairman of the Supreme People’s Assembly, arrived for a five-day visit that also was scheduled to take him to China’s Jilin Province, which borders North Korea and where most of the North’s defectors make their escapes.

China, North Korea’s only major ally, has twice called for an emergency session of the so-called six-party talks that include the two Koreas, China, Japan, Russia and the United States. That request has so far been rejected by Seoul, Washington and Tokyo.