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South Korea to carry out military exercise near DPRK sea border

The Army, Navy, Air Force and Marine Corps will jointly carry out the simulated command post exercise and field training

SEOUL, November 22. /ITAR-TASS/. South Korea on Friday will launch military exercises near the North Korean border in the Yellow Sea. The Joint Chiefs of Staff (JCS) of the South Korean army reported that the war games would be timed to coincide with the third anniversary of the Yeonpyeong Island shelling incident.

The Army, Navy, Air Force and Marine Corps will jointly carry out the simulated command post exercise and field training under various scenarios of North Korean attacks on Yeonpyeong Island on Friday, the Yonhap news agency reported.

“The JCS will apply the new emergency response system, which was enhanced after the Yeonpyeong attack, to train each military branch to promptly respond to provocations at an early stage,” a JCS official said.

Some 170 rounds of artillery were fired from the North Korean side at the border island on November 23, 2010. Two Marines and two civilians were killed in the unprovoked attack.

Following the incident, South Korea established the new command in charge of the north-western islands and beefed up its forces and firepower near the area to enhance strike capabilities. In May, Israeli precision-guided missiles capable of striking North Korean coastal artillery were deployed to Yeonpyeong, which lies just 11 kilometers from North Korean shores, according to Yonhap. The satellite-guided Spike missile has a range of about 20 km and weighs 70 kilograms. The military also more than doubled the number of K-9 self-propelled howitzers on Yeonpyeong, which returned fire during North Korea's shelling three years ago.

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