PM calls for tight defense of western border islands

SEOUL, May 30 (Yonhap) -- Prime Minister Kim Hwang-sik on Monday vowed full government readiness to cope with North Korea's provocations while visiting a western border island shelled by the communist state last November.
Kim was the highest-ranking South Korean official to visit Yeonpyeong Island after the attack.
Inter-Korean tensions remain high following North Korea's two deadly attacks on South Korea last year. The North sank a South Korean warship and bombarded Yeonpyeong Island, leaving 50 people, including two civilians, dead. In particular, the North's shelling of Yeonpyeong Island marked its first direct attack aimed at South Korean territory since the end of the Korean War.
"Traces of shelling remaining everywhere on the island repeatedly awaken us to the graveness of the security situation on the Korean Peninsula," Kim said in his speech at a groundbreaking ceremony for the construction of new homes for the islanders.
"The government will be fully ready for any North Korean provocations so innocent residents of the island will never be harmed," he said.
About 50 homes, commercial buildings and warehouses were destroyed in the shelling.
During the ceremony, the prime minister also promised to create better living environments for the residents rather than merely restoring the damaged homes to their original form.
He directed officials to devise plans to preserve part of the destroyed buildings to use them as public spaces where people can experience firsthand the need for tight national security.
Kim is also scheduled to visit South Korea's northernmost island of Baengnyeong on Monday to encourage soldiers in a Marine Corps unit there.
sshim@yna.co.kr
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