North and South Korea exchange artillery fire
Last updated Tuesday, Nov. 23, 2010 1:57AM EST
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/world/asia-pacific/north-and-south-korea-exchange-artillery-fire/article1809624/
South Korea said Tuesday that it returned fire after North Korea fired artillery onto a South Korean island and into the sea near the countries’ disputed western border.
A South Korean Joint Chiefs of Staff official said dozens of rounds of artillery landed on Yeonpyeong island. The official says South Korea fired back. The official, who spoke on condition of anonymity because of JCS rules, had no other details.
Yonhap news agency said four South Korean soldiers had been wounded in the shelling, the biggest attack in years.
YTN television quoted a witness as saying 60 to 70 houses were on fire after the shelling and TV footage showed plumes of smoke coming from the island. It said a South Korean fighter jet had been deployed to the west coast after the shelling.
“Houses and mountains are on fire and people are evacuating. You can’t see very well because of plumes of smoke,” a witness on the island told YTN.
“People are frightened to death and shelling continues as we speak,” the witness said.
News of the exchange of fire sent the South Korean won tumbling in offshore markets. The impact was felt internationally, with U.S. 10-year Treasury futures rising and the Japanese yen falling.
The attack comes just as a U.S. envoy is travelling to the region after revelations that the North is moving ahead with uranium enrichment, a possible second path to manufacture material for atomic weapons.
The countries’ western maritime boundary has long been a flash point between the two Koreas. The North does not recognize the border that was unilaterally drawn by the United Nations at the close of the 1950-53 Korean War.
North and South Korea have fought three bloody skirmishes near the maritime border in recent years, most recently in November 2009.
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