South Korea picks new defence minister amid North’s threats

SEOUL - The former chairman of South Korea’s Joint Chiefs of Staff was appointed defence minister Friday, the government said, a day after his predecessor resigned amid criticism for a weak response to an artillery attack this week by North Korea.

Kim Kwan Jin, 61, was nominated for his “expertise and insight in policy and strategy” after four decades in the military, the presidential office said.

He was set to replace Kim Tae Young, who resigned Thursday night to take responsibility for what has been criticized as South Korea’s too ineffectual and too slow response to Tuesday’s artillery attack on Yeonpyeong Island near North and South Korea’s disputed maritime border. It killed two South Korean soldiers and two civilians.

Media and observers had earlier speculated that Lee might appoint his security adviser Lee Hee Won.

Tensions have flared between the two Koreas in the days after the clash, which Pyongyang blamed on provocation by the South as it threatened further retaliation.

North Korea warned Friday that joint US-South Korean military exercises planned for this weekend would bring the two Koreas closer to war.

“The situation on the Korean Peninsula is inching closer to the brink of war due to the reckless plan of those trigger-happy elements” to stage “war exercises” targeted against North Korea, the state-run Korean Central News Agency said.

The US is sending an aircraft carrier, the USS George

Washington, to participate in the four-day drills in the Yellow Sea, starting Sunday.

Most residents have left Yeonpyeong ahead of the joint drills, fearing renewed clashes. Only 47 of the original 1,400 residents remained on the island.

According to South Korea, its neighbour fired more than 170 artillery rounds Tuesday, 80 of which hit Yeonpyeong, which lies 12 km from North Korea. The South answered with 80 rounds of its own, aiming for artillery positions on North Korea’s coast. The exchange of fire lasted about an hour.

On Friday, the North’s Committee for Peaceful Reunification of the Fatherland said the country’s army and people “are now greatly enraged at the provocation of the puppet group”, referring to South Korea’s government, which they accuse of being controlled by Western interests.

North Korea was “getting fully ready to give a shower of dreadful fire and blow up the bulwark of the enemies”, said the statement released by the committee and carried by the Korean Central News Agency.

Further shots were heard on Yeonpyeong Friday, but the sounds were from a training exercise in North Korea, South Korea’s Yonhap News Agency quoted the country’s Joint Chiefs of Staff as saying. No munitions were reported hitting the water near the disputed maritime border, the sources said.

Seoul is considering setting up a new military command organization for the islands in the Yellow Sea to strengthen its defence against North Korea, Yonhap said. The command would increase the number of soldiers on the five islands from 5,000 to 12,000, the report said.

Defence spending is likely to be ramped up after the attack and the March sinking of a South Korean warship, also near the Yellow Sea border, which cost the lives of 46 sailors, government officials in Seoul said. South Korea blamed the North for the sinking, but Pyongyang has denied involvement.

According to Yonhap, the government has earmarked 1.4 trillion won ($1.23 billion) for weapons purchases next year.