South Korea Responds To Nork Attack

South Korea's defense minister has resigned and the government has pledged to deploy more troops to its islands in the Yellow Sea, as well as implement new rules of engagement to respond to any future attacks by North Korea.

South Korea is to strengthen its military force on five islands close to North Korea, amid tensions over a clash that left four people dead. It will also review military policy on the use of force, amid concerns it had become "rather passive". Its defence minister has resigned amid criticism of the response. North Korean shelling of a South Korean island on Tuesday killed two civilians and two marines, and prompted an increase in regional tension.

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After holding an emergency cabinet meeting, South Korea announced it would dramatically increase its military capability in the area.

"[The government] has decided to sharply increase military force, including ground troops, on the five islands in the Yellow Sea and allocate more of its budget towards dealing with North Korea's asymmetrical threats," the presidential senior public affairs secretary, Hong Sang-pyo, told reporters.

He said the government had also decided to make new rules of engagement "to change the paradigm itself of responding to North Korea's provocation", describing the current rules as "rather passive".

The BBC's Chris Hogg says the cabinet had decided that in the existing rules of engagement there was too much emphasis on preventing a military incident escalating into something worse. There is now an awareness that this thinking had to change, our correspondent says. In future the South would implement different levels of response depending on whether the North Koreans attacked the military in the South or civilian targets, the spokesman said.

By: Shelldrake