North Korea Fires Artillery Rounds at South Korean Island…

On December 20 2010 11:03 Subversion wrote:
lol @ threatening US

NK seems to think they're a lot more powerful than they actually are

On December 20 2010 11:17 BeJe77 wrote:

If I was S.K, I'd take the threats pretty seriously, they've already bombed the island, what stopping them from going further? Especially since lolwikileaks released the info that China would not have N.K's back and might cut their support soon, financially and militarily. The only thing keeping N.K. from a total melt down is the financial support by China.

North Korea called on its people on Monday to unite in a campaign "to oppose war and uphold peace" as tension soars along the western sea border ahead of South Korea's planned artillery drills.

The Rodong Sinmun, the newspaper of the ruling Workers' Party, argued that doing so is "crucial to keeping alive the fate of the Korean nation and rooting out the deepening danger of war," saying the situation on the peninsula is "running toward the brink of war."

The nine-paragraph editorial could be a call for internal unity as South Korea prepares to conduct a live-fire drill off its western frontline island that North Korea shelled last month. It may also be an excuse to justify Pyongyang's action should tension along the inter-Korean border turn more serious.

North Korea has deployed multiple rocket launchers along the shore north of Yeonpyeong, Baeknyeong and Gangwha islands in response to a planned South Korean artillery drill on Yeonpyeong, government sources here say. The North earlier threatened an "unpredicted self-defense counterattack" to the drills.

A South Korean government source said, "After making the threat in a message sent Friday, North Korea raised the alert level at artillery divisions on the west coast and deployed the multiple rocket launchers." The source added the South Korean military is monitoring the situation.

The North also reportedly made coastal artillery ready to fire and put some fighter jets on the west coast on standby.

South Korean F-15K fighter jets have been equipped with air-to-surface missiles with a range of 278 km as well as GPS-guided JDAM missiles capable of precision attacks on targets 24 km away. The aim is to deliver surgical strikes on North Korean artillery positions in caves along the country's west coast if they fire.

The F-15K fighter jets can carry 15 rounds of 225 kg JDAM (GBU-38) and seven rounds of 900 kg JDAM (GBU-31) missiles. U.S. military communications technicians apparently set up special equipment on Yeonpyong Island in case North Korea uses GPS jammers to throw the missiles off course.

Various South Korean warships including 4,500-ton destroyers, frigates and escort ships, P-3C surveillance planes, "Hyunmu" I and II missiles with a range of 180-300 km and U.S.-made ATACMS Block 1A surface-to-surface missiles with a range of 300 km have apparently also been placed on emergency stand-by.

KH-12 U.S. reconnaissance satellites that can identify objects to a resolution of 15 cm from hundreds of kilometers are more frequently monitoring North Korean activities on the west coast. The U.S. Air Force's U-2 reconnaissance planes as well as South Korea's Geumgang and Baekdu reconnaissance aircraft are also flying over Yeonpyong Island, according to sources.

Re the USAF bombers on Guam, 36th Wing says it "cannot comment on operational status of aircraft."

Yonhap: 2 #ROK destroyers forward deployed in Yellow Sea. AFP: #ROK Air Force readied in case of #DPRK attack. #Koreas

On December 20 2010 14:21 Straife wrote:
Artillery shots heard on the island, whether they are the artillery shots from the drill, or worse is unknown...

Source: Reuters Twitter Feed
http://twitter.com/Reuters

EDIT: I assume this means SK started their live fire exercise with shots being aimed SW away from NK