South Korea to Hold Naval Exercise in Yellow Sea

22.11.2011 In this week South Korean armed forces are about to conduct large-scale naval maneuvers in the Yellow Sea next to the North Korea's border, reported the national Joint Chiefs of Staff on Nov 22.

The exercise will be associated with events happened one year ago when DPRK coastal artillery cannonaded boundary Yeonpueong Island and caused death of two South Korean non-combatants and two marines.

The maneuvers scheduled on Wednesday will be attended by northwest islands defense command, Navy, and Air Force. Practical drills will be supplemented by headquarter games in order to simulate North Korea's bombardment of Yeonpueong Island and attempts to conduct landing assault operation on neighboring Baengnyeong Island.

These two islands are located next to sea border between the two Koreas; it is unrecognized by Pyongyang and called Northern Limit Line (NLL). During the Yeonpueong incident, North Korea fired about 170 shells; that became the first direct attack upon South Korea's territory since the Korean War of 1950-1953, reports Yonhap.

According to South Korean Joint Chiefs of Staff, land troops, naval and air forces will hold maneuvers to practice defense of the islands from the enemy's invasion and protection of home bases; it is planned to repeat the last year's scenario to test ability of carrying out rapid and precise retaliation. The coming maneuvers are intended to check defensive capabilities of South Korean armed forces and remind about lessons and victims of the last year bombardment, said the agency.

In accordance with a special scenario, an army corps defending Seoul will hold its own exercise to test combat readiness, reported Korean Army's HQ. According to Yonhap, the army corps will counter invasion of North Korean Navy and repel air provocations, reports ITAR-TASS.