By Keith B. Richburg Washington Post
BEIJING - North Korea launched a massive artillery barrage on a South Korean island Tuesday killing two South Korean marines wounding at least 14 others and setting more than 60 buildings ablaze in the most serious confrontation since the Norths sinking of a South Korean submarine in March.
South Korea immediately responded with its own artillery barrage and put its fighter jets on high alert bringing the two sides - which technically have remained in a state of war since the Korean armistice in 1953 - close to the brink of a major conflagration.
South Korea called the shelling of the civilian-inhabited island of Yeonpyeong which lies near the disputed maritime border separating North and South Korea a breach of the 57-year-old armistice that halted the Korean war without a peace agreement.
The North fired an estimated 200 artillery shells onto the island and the South returned fire with about 80 shells from its own howitzers. The attack began just after 2:30 p.m.
News reports said the 1000 or so residents of the island escaped to bunkers while the shelling continued. Television footage showed several plumes of black smoke rising from the island.
The United States Russia and China all called for a cessation of hostilities. White House Press Secretary Robert Gibbs in a statement said The United States strongly condemns this attack and calls on North Korea to halt its belligerent action and to fully abide by the terms of the armistice agreement. The U.S. keeps tens of thousands of troops in South Korea to aid in its defense and Gibbs said the United States is firmly committed to the defense of our ally the Republic of Korea and to the maintenance of regional peace and stability.
The latest conflict comes at a particularly tense time on the Korean peninsula just days after the reclusive government in Pyongyang revealed to a visiting American scientist the existence of a new uranium enrichment facility and just weeks after North Korean leader Kim Jung Il began laying the groundwork for his youngest son to become his eventual successor.
The flare-up also comes as the chief U.S. negotiator for the peninsula Stephen Bosworth was in Beijing for talks about how to respond to the Norths new uranium facility.
China in a statement by the foreign ministry spokesman urged a return to the suspended six-party talks to help defuse tensions.
We have taken note of the relevant report and we express concern over the situation the spokesman Hong Lei said at a regularly scheduled briefing. We hope the relevant parties will do more to contribute to peace and security on the peninsula.
China is hermetic North Koreas main ally and trading partner contributing food aid as well as economic assistance and investment. The two fought together against American and South Korean troops in the Korean War. China is concerned among other things about a possible breakdown of the North Korean regime which might lead to a flood of refugees across the border into China.
Various Chinese analysts today interpreted the Norths actions - coming so soon after the revelation of the new uranium enrichment facility - as a possible call for attention by the North and an attempt to increase its bargaining position.
It is my understanding that North Korea is creating some incidents to make the international world have contact with it said Chu Shulong a professor from Tsinghua University. And then it can bargain with international world to get benefits. The six-party talks have been halted for a long time.
Tuesdays attack began just as tens of thousands of South Korean troops were beginning an annual military drill called Safeguarding the Nation. The Pyongyang regime had denounced the exercise as a provocation.
