North Korea's artillery, rhetoric keep tensions high
BEIJING - The distant rumble of artillery practice in North Korea sent shell-shocked residents of Yeonpyeong Island scurrying to their bomb shelters Friday as a U.S. aircraft carrier cruised toward the region for military exercises this weekend.
Continue reading the rest of "North Korea's artillery, rhetoric keep tensions high" by Athens Banner-Herald
Although the explosions turned out to be training exercises inside North Korea, the reaction underscored the high anxiety levels after an artillery attack Tuesday killed four South Koreans on the island. The North Korean propaganda machine also kept up its unnerving stream of threats Friday, warning it would unleash "a shower of dreadful fire and blow up the bulwark of the enemies."
The Chinese are also unhappy about the imminent arrival of the George Washington, which is to participate in U.S. and South Korean war games that begin Sunday and are designed to deter North Korea from further attacks.
Chinese Foreign Minister Yang Jiechi spoke by telephone Friday with his South Korean counterpart, Kim Sung-hwan, to express China's "principled position" - as South Korea's Yonhap news agency put it - about naval exercises in the Yellow Sea.
The George Washington was supposed to participate in joint naval exercises in the Yellow Sea over the summer, but China launched such a strenuous campaign against the presence of the nuclear-powered carrier that the war games were moved farther away.
Those exercises followed a March torpedo attack on a South Korean ship that left 46 sailors dead, for which China refused
© 2009 http://onlineathens.com - Athens Banner-Herald - All rights reserved.
Comment on "North Korea's artillery, rhetoric keep tensions high"
| Related News: |
