U.S. aircraft carrier heads for Korean waters

24/11/2010| IslamWeb

A U.S. aircraft carrier group set off for Korean waters on Wednesday, a day after North Korea launched artillery shells on a South Korean island, a move likely to enrage Pyongyang and unsettle its ally, China.

The nuclear-powered USS George Washington, which carries 75 warplanes and has a crew of over 6,000, left a naval base south of Tokyo and would join exercises with South Korea from Sunday to the following Wednesday, U.S. officials in Seoul said.

The move appeared aimed at reinforcing heavy pressure on China to rein in North Korea after the reclusive nation fired dozens of artillery shells at the South Korean island. Two South Korean soldiers were killed and houses set ablaze in the heaviest attack in the region since the Korean War ended in 1953.

But Seoul was bustling as normal on a sunny autumn day, although developments were being closely watched by office workers on TV and in newspapers. Editorials stepped up pressure on President Lee Myung-bak to respond more toughly than he has to past provocations by the North and two small groups held anti-North Korea protests.

Pyongyang said the firing was in reaction to military drills conducted by South Korea in the area at the time but Seoul said it had not been firing at the North.

President Barack Obama, woken up in the early hours to be told of the artillery strike, said "he was outraged" and pressed the North "to stop its provocative actions".

Although U.S. officials said the joint exercise was scheduled before the attack by North Korea, it was reminiscent of a crisis in 1996 when then President Bill Clinton sent an aircraft carrier group through the Taiwan Strait after Beijing test-fired missiles into the channel between the mainland and Taiwan.

"An aircraft carrier is the most visible sign of power projection there is...you could see this as a form of pre-emptive deterrence," said Lee Chung-min of Yonsei University in Seoul.

Tuesday's bombardment nagged at global markets, already unsettled by worries over Ireland's debt problem and looking to invest in less risky assets.

But South Korea's markets, after sharp falls, recovered lost grounds.

Semi state of war

"We're in a semi state of war," South Korean coastguard Kim Dong-jin told Reuters in the port city of Incheon where many residents of Yeonpyeong island fled in panic as the bombardment triggered a fire storm.

Despite the rhetoric, regional powers made clear they were looking for a diplomatic way to calm things down.

South Korea, its armed forces technically superior though about half the size of the North's one-million-plus army, warned of "massive retaliation" if its neighbor attacked again.

But it was careful to avoid any immediate threat of retaliation which might spark an escalation of fighting across the Cold War's last frontier.

Japanese Prime Minister Naoto Kan called on China to help 'rein in the hermit state'.

China has long propped up the Pyongyang leadership, worried that a collapse of the North could bring instability to its own borders and also wary of a unified Korea that would be dominated by the United States, the key ally of the South.

Beijing said it had agreed with the United States to try to restart talks among regional powers over North Korea's nuclear weapons program.

A number of analysts suspect that Tuesday's attack may have been an attempt by North Korean leader Kim jong-il to raise his bargaining position ahead of disarmament talks which he has used in the past to win concessions and aid from the outside world, in particular the United States.

"It's Mr Kim's old game to get some attention and some economic goodies," said Lin Chong-pin, strategic studies professor at Tamkang University in Taipei.

Several analysts believe the attacks may also have been driven by domestic politics, with the ailing Kim desperate to give a lift to his youngest son, named as heir apparent to the family dynasty in September but who has little clear support in the military.

PHOTO CAPTION

Police block marching protesters after a rally denouncing North Korea in Seoul November 24, 2010.

Reuters