It looks like you're using an Ad Blocker.
Please white-list or disable AboveTopSecret.com in your ad-blocking tool.
Thank you.
Some features of ATS will be disabled while you continue to use an ad-blocker.
(visit the link for the full news article)
Seoul appears unwilling to back down over planned military drills, despite UN fears and threats from the North.
The North has threatened an even deadlier attack on the South if the one-day drill scheduled for between December 18 and 21 is staged on Yeonpyeong island near the disputed Yellow Sea border.
South Korea is set to press ahead with a live-fire military drill despite rising tensions with the North that have prompted an emergency United Nations Security Council meeting.
Residents of Yeonpyeong island, which lies in disputed waters off the Korean peninsula's west coast, were ordered to move into air raid bunkers ahead of the military exercise on Monday, according to South Korean media.
North Korea has threatened to strike if the South goes ahead with its military drill.
South Korea ordered residents of Yeonpyeong Island and four border islands to take shelter Monday in preparation of military exercises on the same day an emergency meeting of the U.N. Security Council ended with no unified statement on the controversial issue.
The drills have raised fears of a new conflict with North Korea.
An approximate 8,000 residents have been ordered to take cover in Yeonpyeong, Baengnyeong, Daecheong, Socheong and Udo.Typical protocol is for the drills to begin two hours after the notification of residents, though the country's military declined to confirm the exact timing of the scheduled exercises.
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, Russian Ambassador Vitaly Churkin told reporters.
Russia called for the emergency session over the weekend to defuse the crisis over South Korea's scheduled live-fire military exercises off Yeonpyeong Island, which was shelled by North Korea in November. Churkin warned darkly that the world could be faced with a "serious conflict" within hours, and that the international community has "no game plan on the diplomatic side."
"Within hours there may be a serious aggravation of tension -- a serious conflict, for that matter," he said.
N.Korea: Drill to bring 'disaster'
North Korea Saturday predicted "disaster" if South Korea goes ahead with a live-fire artillery exercise on a border island bombarded by the communist state last month.
The North has threatened an even deadlier attack on the South if the one-day drill scheduled for between December 18 and 21 is staged on Yeonpyeong island near the disputed Yellow Sea border.
A foreign ministry statement, quoted by the official news agency, accused US troops -- some 20 of whom who will take part in the drill -- of providing a "human shield" for the upcoming exercise, and repeated threats to attack.
"The US Department of State sent a threatening message to the DPRK (North Korea), urging it not to forget there are Americans and foreign reporters on the island. The US is providing even 'a human shield'," the statement said.
The North said the upcoming exercise "would make it impossible to prevent the situation on the Korean peninsula from exploding and escape its ensuing disaster".
It said its military has already threatened "decisive and merciless punishment" for such an action and "does not make an empty talk".
Originally posted by The_Coo
North Korea will do nothing....they will end up looking like pussys over this
South Korea are just right to carry out these drills its nothing to do with the North what they do on their own soil
North Korea needs a good spanking and they know they would get it if they did anything stupid
Originally posted by Ben81
NORTH AND SOUTH KOREA ON THE BRINK OF WAR
Originally posted by The_Coo
North Korea needs a good spanking and they know they would get it if they did anything stupid