North Korea bombs South Korea's Yeonpyeong Island
Two South Korean soldiers were killed and a dozen injured after North Korea fired dozens of artillery shells onto a South Korean island setting more than 60 houses ablaze and sending civilians fleeing in terror.
By Peter Foster in Beijing 7:17AM GMT 23 Nov 2010
The attack, which comes days after it emerged that North Korea was pressing ahead with its illegal nuclear programme, marks a serious further escalation of tensions on the Korean Peninsula.
The incident is believed to have been sparked by South Korean military exercises in the area, which the North had objected to.
Officials said "dozens" of artillery rounds had landed on Yeonpyeong Island at in the Yellow Sea, 50 miles off the South's northwest coast in an area close to a disputed sea border. Other reports suggested around 200 shells could have been fired in the attack which began at 2.34pm local time (7.34am GMT).
F-16 fighter jets were scrambled and South Korean land-based forces returned fire on the North as civilians were evacuated to emergency bunkers, according to witnesses quoted by the Seoul-based cable news television channel YTN.
Pictures from the channel showed plumes of smoke rising from the island, which is the largest in a clutch of smaller islands, with a population of less than 1,300 people.
"Houses and mountains are on fire and people are evacuating. You can't see very well because of plumes of smoke," a witness on the island told YTN. "People are frightened to death and shelling continues as we speak," the witness added.
South Korea's President Lee Myung-Bak held an emergency meeting with his national security advisers in an underground war room. President Lee urged the officials to "handle it [the situation] well to prevent further escalation," a spokesman said.
The South's defence minister Kim Tae-Young said the South had fired 80 shots in response to the North's shelling. "We were carrying out naval, air force and army training exercises and they [the North] seem to have opened fire in objection," a military official added.
Russia called for both sides to avoid any escalation of violence, while China, the North's closest international ally, said it was "concerned" over the situation.
"We hope the relevant parties do more to contribute to peace and stability on the Korean peninsula," said a Chinese foreign ministry spokesman, adding that China was still seeking information on the clash. "The situation needs to be verified," he said.
The Korean won plunged as markets feared the economic fallout from the rising tensions.
The islands were the scene of three skirmishes between the navies of North and South Korea in 1999, 2002 and most recently in 2009 when a North Korean patrol ship was set on fire by South Korean gunfire.
The attack comes after nearly two years of deteriorating relations between the two Koreas, which reached a nadir last March after the sinking of a South Korean corvette, the Cheonan, with the loss of 46 lives.
South Korea has since cut off almost all humanitarian aid to the North, a near bankrupt-state that has been under tight international sanctions since conducting a second nuclear bomb test in 2009 in defiance of UN agreements.
The North has also been facing a degree of political turmoil this year as their ailing leader Kim Jong-il prepares the ground for a dynastic succession that will see power being handed to his youngest son, Kim Jong-un.
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