War rhetoric rises between Koreas

The two Koreas have ramped up their war rhetoric with the South’s President Lee Myung-bak vowing strong retaliation to any future North Korean provocation.

“We have now been awakened to the realization that war can be prevented and peace assured only when such provocations are met with a strong response,” Lee said on Monday in a radio address.

Tensions climbed on the Korean Peninsula after North Korea shelled the South’s Yeonpyeong Island on November 23, killing four people.

The North, however, insists that its shelling was in response to a military drill by the South.

Lee went on to say that his country is not afraid of war with its northern neighbor.

“Fear of war is never helpful in preventing war,” he added, saying the military “must respond relentlessly when they come under attack.”

Meanwhile, North Korea also warned that the South’s recent military drills were “reckless military provocation” that could lead to war on the Korean Peninsula.

“There is a limit to our patience,” said a statement carried by the official Korean Central News Agency on Monday.

South Korea announced that it would hold a new round of naval firing drills at 23 locations around the Korean Peninsula.

“This is part of a regular practice involving army, naval and air forces… and the (state-run) Agency for Defense Development will also conduct ammunition tests off the west coast,” a spokesman for the South Korean Joint Chiefs of Staff said on Sunday.

The drills will be held around the Korean peninsula from December 27 to 31, the report added.

Last week, the South staged a live-fire artillery exercise on Yeonpyeong Island, which lasted about two hours.

The maneuvers at a firing range in Pocheon, around 30 km from the inter-Korean border, involved more than 100 types of weapons.