President Obama comes to support of South Korea, condemns North Korea for 'outrageous' attack
By Richard Sisk
AP/Yonhap
Thick smoke billows from South Korean Yeonpyeong island near the border with North Korea. 
AP/Yonhap
North Korea shot dozens of rounds of artillery on to the island near the world's most heavily-fortified border. Related News
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Obama called President Lee Myung-Bak on Tuesday after meeting with his national security advisers following North Korea's firing of a volley of shells over the border in the heaviest bombardment since the Korean War ended in 1953.
He told his Korean counterpart he "strongly condemned the attack," and the two leaders agreed to hold joint military exercises and training "in the days ahead," a White House statement said. The President also pledged to work with the international community to rein in the communist country.
Obama's comments come amid a rising chorus of condemnation for North Korea's actions, including from the top U.S. general in South Korea.
United Nations chief Ban Ki-moon called it "one of the gravest incidents since the Korean War" - and South Korea threatened "enormous retaliation."
Two South Korean marines were killed, and at least 16 other military personnel and three civilians were wounded when the North unleashed an hour-long midafternoon artillery barrage on Yeonpyeong Island in contested waters off South Korea's west coast. The North said South Korean naval forces, who were conducting nine days of live-fire exercises in the area, provoked the attack.
"It is our traditional military countermeasure to punish perpetrator's fire with a thunderbolt of fire," said a statement from Pyongyang.
About 50 rounds hit the island, destroying several structures at a military base and setting fires in the hillsides. Dozens more rounds fell into the sea, South Korean news agencies reported.
"I thought I would die," said Lee Chun-ok, 54, an islander who was watching TV in her home when the shelling began and blasted away a door and a wall. "I was really, really terrified," she told The Associated Press after being evacuated to the port city of Incheon.
South Korean batteries responded with about 80 rounds of 155-millimeter long-range artillery that raked North Korean coastal areas. Seoul also scrambled F-16 fighter-bombers to fly over the island.
South Korean President Lee Myung-bak met with his generals in an underground bunker in Seoul. He then put his military on high alert and ordered the air force to take out North Korean missile bases if the North renews the attack.
"Indiscriminate attacks on civilians are a grave matter," he told the Yonhap news agency. "I think enormous retaliation is going to be necessary to make North Korea incapable of provoking us again." The U.S. scrambled to prevent a lethal escalation across the world's most heavily fortified border.
"I want to ensure you that this is isolated to the Northwest Island area," Gen. Walter Sharp, commander of the 8th Army and combined U.S. and South Korean forces, said in a message to the 28,000 U.S. troops poised near the Demilitarized Zone.
Several analysts speculated that the latest incident is an attempt by the North to force an easing of economic sanctions during the rocky succession to power of Kim Jong Un, the 26-year-old son of ailing dictator Kim Jong Il.
"My guess is that the North Koreans would like to keep everyone else off balance while they sort out problems at home," said Boston University analyst Michael Corgan.
Read more: http://www.nydailynews.com/news/world/2010/11/23/2010-11-23_s_korea_threatens_air_strikes_as_us_moves_to_prevent_escalation_of_violence_with.html#ixzz16C6dhTTQ
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