South Korea's president made a rare trip to a front-line base overlooking North Korea during today's war games, the biggest ones yet in response to Pyongyang's bombardment of a border island last month, which killed two southern marines and two civilians.
"We had believed patience would ensure peace on this land, but that was not the case," President Lee Myung-bak said, according to Reuters. Lee has come under criticism domestically for failing to prevent the Nov. 23 attack on Yeonpyeong Island, and his army chief and defense minister both resigned over the issue. Today he threatened "a merciless counter-attack" if the North fires again.
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South Korean military soldiers take part during a joint air and ground force military exercise 25 kilometers from the North Korean border on Thursday. The exercises were conducted to test firepower and prepare the South Korean defense force for any potential attack by North Korea.
South Korean tanks paraded back and forth today in the Pocheon region between Seoul and the demilitarized zone that separates the country from the reclusive, communist North. Three dozen rounds of self-propelled artillery went off, while fighter jets whizzed overhead and rocket launchers did live-fire drills. Naval forces did the same but farther south, about 60 miles from the Koreas' disputed sea border. It all lasted just under an hour.
As was the case after similar drills Monday, North Korea did not retaliate militarily. Today state media quoted a top North Korean military leader as saying the North is ready to launch a "sacred war of justice, Korean style."
The North is ready to use its "nuclear deterrent at any time necessary, to cope with the enemies' actions deliberately pushing the situation to the brink of a war," the report said, according to the South's Yonhap news agency. The threat comes amid Western concerns that Pyongyang's disputed nuclear program is advancing more quickly than previously thought.
New Mexico Gov. Bill Richardson, who visited North Korea last weekend to try to tamp down tensions, has said he believes North Korean officials have exercised restraint in not attacking the South during several rounds of recent exercises.
"The conversations I had with them indicate to me that perhaps they're ready to turn a page, that they realize they went too far," Richardson told The Associated Press in an interview Wednesday in New Mexico.
During his trip, he said, North Korean officials agreed to allow U.N. inspectors to resume visits to the country's nuclear installations. But he cautioned that the whole Korean peninsula is still mired in danger.
"There's still enormous tension, enormous mistrust, and I believe diplomacy is what is needed to get us out of this tinderbox," he said.
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On a private, unofficial mission to North Korea, Richardson took along a few reporters as well. CNN's Wolf Blitzer wrote that the trip left him with the impression that the Korean peninsula is a "tinderbox" -- the same word Richardson used."I believe this is the most dangerous spot on Earth right now," Blitzer wrote on CNN's website.
Washington was quick to come to South Korea's assistance after the surprise Yeonpyeong Island attack last month, and U.S. forces conducted their largest-ever drills with their South Korean allies less than a week later. But since South Korea has been conducting increasingly larger, bolder exercises, U.S. officials are privately expressing their concern, the BBC reported.
Russia and China have also called on the South to back down and not provoke a response from Pyongyang needlessly.