A South Korean patrol boat sank and a North Korean boat was heavily damaged in the incident. The pact unraveled, however, in a fire storm of protest by conservative lawmakers in the South and was never implemented. In one of the worst incidents since the Korean War, North Korea lobbed shells at Yeonpyeong Island in November , about half of them landing on civilian and military targets.
Two civilians and two South Korean soldiers were killed. Only days before, North Korea revealed to a visiting American scholar a vast new uranium enrichment facility. Over the next three years, North Korea embarked on a series of long-range missile and nuclear tests. The cliff tops of Yeonpyeong Island offer an unrivalled vantage point to watch the cat-and-mouse games between the Koreas on the high seas. During the Reuters visit, two South Korean navy patrol boats and a corvette, horns and sirens blaring, pushed a group of Chinese fishing boats back over the NLL.
The fishing boats are often accompanied by North Korean naval escort vessels, island residents say. Artillery emplacements and long-range Hyunmoo-1 cruise missiles, capable of striking the North Korean capital of Pyongyang are stationed atop the cliffs. Near one unguarded cruise missile, a reporter found boxes containing U. Tanks, dug into deep sandbag-lined bunkers, face the North Korean coast. On the beaches below, rows of anti-landing spikes and barbed wire fences frame small coves. Debris from fishing boats and ships lie between machine gun emplacements.
Signs warn the public not to approach objects that look like mines. Furthermore, North Korean bellicosity has the perverse impact of applying pressure on their opponent states by worrying their populations.
There is also speculation that the attack was intended to establish the hard-line credentials of the heir-apparent, Kim Jong-un. At the age of 27, and with few advantages other than his family name, Kim Jong-un will need as much support from the North Korean military as possible and this attack might have been 'led' by the young man in all but name.
It stands to reason that by carrying out these pin-prick attacks on South Korea's forces, without thought of repercussions, the regime is able to gain support amongst hard-line military leaders in the army. Based on Soviet lines, the military still sees its primary function as restoring the unity of the country by force.
While the army is unlikely to start another full-scale war, attacks like this reassure the military that the regime will not give up the idea of unifying Korea. Given all this, it is not likely that the conflict will continue. Despite heated rhetoric and media speculation, it is likely that the North and South will take pains to control their military units in the area. While both sides will continue to bluster about responsibility of the event, neither will be willing to take it to the next level.
Like two estranged brothers sharing the same life raft, they will make bellicose noises, while each seeking for an acceptable face-saving way out. For China and the United States, national interests are at stake: neither will seek to escalate the conflict. To some extent, both fear another war and both fear an untimely collapse of the North since these would have dire humanitarian and security consequences. Furthermore, both states eye any conflict on the peninsula wearily, since the impact on the regional economy could be severe.
Prior to the bombardment of Yeonpyeong, was a year of already heightened tensions on the Korean Peninsula. In March of that year, a South Korean naval vessel was sunk by what was later determined to be a torpedo fired from a North Korean submarine. Map of Korean maritime border, language neutral version. Military Demarcation Line the border claimed by North Korea since The attack itself began in the afternoon of November 23, with an initial barrage of North Korean artillery firing an estimated rounds over a period of roughly 12 minutes; of the rounds fired, approximately 60 struck South Korean Marine positions on the island, while the remaining 90 landed offshore.
The Marine units responded with a minute counterfire barrage, during which the Marines fired off 80 rounds. In the immediate aftermath of the attack, South Korean warplanes were scrambled with orders to engage North Korean artillery positions should they commence a third barrage. Possible North Korean Motives A number of suggestions have been offered regarding North Korean motives for launching the attack.
By far the most straight forward holds that the attack was a response to South Korean military exercises launched just prior to the bombardment. It is not clear whether it was the location of the artillery exercise, its occurrence alongside the larger Hoguk exercise, or some combination of the two, that so provoked the DPRK, but the exercises have been pointed to as a likely trigger. Others have suggested that the attack was motivated by separate, domestic considerations. On the Precipice of War?
Tensions on the peninsula continued to intensify and threaten to spill over into war in the weeks following the attack as the South Korean military engaged in retaliatory drills and exercises, including an artillery drill on Yeonpyeong Island on December 20, to which North Korea promised to retaliate. The South would hold additional major air and land drills less than 20 miles from the border. Regardless, the fact that war in the end was avoided should not distract from the fact that war on the peninsula did very nearly break out.
Former U. At least one former intelligence official has argued that the situation in was much more likely to result in war than was the showdown between Kim Jong Un and U. President Donald Trump in
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