Residents of South Korean island fleeing ahead of military drills

Residents of South Korean island fleeing ahead of military drills
http://edition.cnn.com/2010/WORLD/as...pyeong.island/

Yeonpyeong Island, South Korea (CNN) -- Amid South Korean plans to hold live-fire military drills this week and North Korean threats of retaliation, many residents of Yeonpyeong Island are evacuating, afraid of being caught in the middle.
Villagers streamed onto what they believed was the last ferry to Incheon, South Korea, on Sunday, carrying what belongings they could. Some were holding their children as others helped the elderly.
"I'm leaving because they said the drills are tomorrow," said Kim Ok Jin, 66.
Kim said the island was once a good place to live and she does not want to leave.
"Of course I'm angry," she said. "But that's not going to change anything."
Many Yeonpyeong residents are evacuating for a second time. This time, however, they have warning. On November 23, they had none before North Korea began shelling the island. Two civilians and two South Korean Marines died in the attack.
The South Korean military said Thursday that its drills will take place in the seas southwest of Yeonpyeong Island between December 18 and 21, but bad weather forced a delay Saturday. South Korea's Yonhap news agency reported the drills will take place Monday or Tuesday in the Yellow Sea off the island.
As villagers departed, few signs of life remained on the island -- only military trucks patrolling and waiting for possible North Korean retaliation for the drills.
Not everyone on Yeonpyeong, however, was leaving. Song Young Ok said she has not been told to stop selling tickets for the ferry off the island, and doesn't know when the military drills will take place.
Song said she is planning to stay put, holed up along with others in a military bunker.
She said she doesn't know why it has to be this way -- if South Korea carries out the drills, North Korea has threatened to retaliate even more strongly. South Korea's insistence on conducting the drills is picking a fight, she said.
Others were more optimistic. "It's OK," said ferry passenger Lee Chun Nyeo, 83. "The soldiers need to do (the exercises), right?"
Yeonpyeong is located just south of the Northern Limit Line, the line drawn in 1953 by the United Nations just after the Korean War. The U.N. drew the line three nautical miles from the North Korean coast and put five islands close to the coast under South Korean control.
That was supposed to be a temporary arrangement. But in the absence of a full peace agreement, the Northern Limit Line remains in place.
North Korea has suggested an alternative line, but South Korea has resisted, as it would bring the North's maritime boundary close to Incheon, a main port.
Waters in the Yellow Sea are important for fishing and crab. For North Korean fishermen especially, the blue crab season between June and September is an important source of income. Crabs have a habit of migrating south during that time, so the water is sometimes crowded with boats from both countries, as well as vessels from China. However, the Yellow Sea has seen armed clashes in the past few years, the most serious of them in 1999 and 2002.
China and Russia have asked South Korea to reconsider holding the drills. Russia called for an emergency meeting of the U.N. Security Council on Sunday.

UN Security Council in Emergency Talks on Korean Tensions
http://www.voanews.com/english/news/...112153499.html


The United Nations Security Council is holding emergency talks to try to defuse tensions on the Korean peninsula, where South Korea is vowing to proceed with a live-fire military exercise, despite threats of retaliation from the North.

Russia called for Sunday's emergency talks in New York to send what it calls a "restraining signal" to the two Koreas, and to "help launch diplomatic activity" aimed at resolving their disputes politically.

South Korea's military says it is determined to carry out the one-day live fire drill on an island near the disputed western maritime border of the two Koreas. It says the exercise on Yeonpyeong island will take place either Monday or Tuesday, depending on when the weather is clearer.

North Korea responded to a previous South Korean live-fire exercise on Yeonpyeong on November 23 by shelling the island, killing four South Koreans.

Pyongyang calls such activity a provocation because it involves artillery fire into waters it claims are North Korean. Seoul says such exercises are defensive. North Korea says a new South Korean live-fire drill in the disputed waters will trigger a disaster.

Former U.S. ambassador to the United Nations Bill Richardson says his latest talks with North Korean officials in Pyongyang have made "some progress" in trying to resolve what he calls a "very tense" situation.

Speaking from Pyongyang, Richardson told U.S. television network CNN that a North Korean general he met Sunday was receptive to his proposal for setting up a hotline between North and South Korean forces. He said such a hotline would allow both sides to address issues if an incident happens.

Richardson now serves as governor of the U.S. state of New Mexico. He is on a private, four-day mission to Pyongyang to try to ease tensions on the Korean peninsula. That visit is due to end Monday.

Richardson says North Korean general Pak Rim Su also was open to his idea for a military commission to monitor disputes in and around the Yellow Sea. The former U.S. diplomat says a commission would include representatives of the two Koreas and the United States.

General Pak leads North Korean forces in a zone near the inter-Korean border. Richardson described his talks with Pak as "very tough."

South Korea's Yonhap news agency quotes a government official as saying North Korea has raised the preparedness of artillery units near the disputed maritime border.

Richardson welcomed the U.N. Security Council's decision to hold emergency talks on the crisis. He said a strong statement from the Council will provide "political cover" for all sides to avoid aggressive military action.

The foreign ministers of Russia and China discussed the situation on the Korean peninsula by telephone Saturday. Both urged Seoul and Pyongyang to exercise restraint.

Defense Ministry: South Korea starts live-fire drill
http://edition.cnn.com/2010/WORLD/as...reas.tensions/

(CNN) -- South Korea's planned live-fire military exercises started Monday afternoon, the country's ministry of defense said.
North Korea has said the drill could ignite a war and has promised to respond militarily, but has also agreed to a series of actions after former U.S. ambassador to the United Nations Bill Richardson urged the North to not take an aggressive response.
On Sunday, South Korea ordered thousands to find shelter in preparation for the drill while the United Nations' Security Council wrangled over growing tensions in the Korean peninsula.

An approximate 8,000 residents were ordered to take cover in Yeonpyeong, Baengnyeong, Daecheong, Socheong and Udo in the hours leading up to the drill.
North Korea said over the weekend that the planned exercises were designed to violate the armistice that ended the Korean War in 1953 and "ignite war at any cost."
At the United Nations, nearly eight hours of emergency Security Council talks on the standoff ended Sunday without a unified statement.