South Korea to bolster isle drive against Pyongyang

South Korea is to strengthen its military power on 5 islands shut to North Korea, amid tensions above a clash that left four men and women lifeless.

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It can also evaluation military policy around the use of power, amid issues it had turn out to be "rather passive".

North Korean shelling of a South Korean island on Tuesday killed two civilians and two marines, and prompted an increase in regional stress.

China, which has not apportioned blame, urged each side to show "restraint".

North Korea, meanwhile, has threatened additional military motion if South Korea continues on what it called a "path of military provocation", the North's official KCNA news company noted.

Pyongyang has blamed Seoul for this week's incident on Yeonpyeong island. The South was holding military exercises inside the location at the time, and returned artillery hearth subsequent the North Korean shelling.

The North also accused the usa of stoking tensions - saying the US assisted draw up the "illegal" western maritime border between the two Koreas.

About 28,000 US forces are stationed in South Korea.
Troop grow

The clash was one particular of your worst incidents between the two Koreas, who stay technically at war subsequent the 1950-53 Korean War.

The shelling set alight many homes on the South Korean island really shut on the disputed western maritime border, killed four men and women and injured various additional.

Just after holding an emergency cabinet assembly, South Korea announced it could substantially grow its military capacity inside the location.

"[The government] has decided to sharply grow military power, which include floor troops, around the 5 islands inside the Yellow Sea and allocate additional of its funds in direction of dealing with North Korea's asymmetrical threats," the presidential senior public affairs secretary, Hong Sang-pyo, advised reporters.

He stated the government had also decided to make new rules of engagement "to change the paradigm itself of responding to North Korea's provocation", describing the current rules as "rather passive".

The BBC's Chris Hogg says the cabinet had decided that inside the current rules of engagement there was too much emphasis on preventing a military incident escalating into a thing worse.

There's now an awareness that this contemplating had to change, our correspondent says.

In future the South would put into action various ranges of response depending on regardless of whether the North Koreans attacked the military inside the South or civilian targets, the spokesman stated.

The US and South Korea are to hold joint naval exercises inside the coming days south of Yeonpyeong island.

A international ministry spokesman in Seoul stated the selection had been created in the course of a cellphone dialog between US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and South Korean Foreign Minister Kim Sung-hwan on Thursday.

"We agreed that by the drill, we are going to have the ability to deliver a clear message on the North," the spokesman stated.