S. Korean military stage large-scale exercise in Yellow Sea

BAENGNYEONG ISLAND, South Korea, Oct. 28 (Yonhap) -- The South Korean military on Friday conducted a large-scale exercise on a volatile border island off the west coast as the South and the U.S. reaffirmed their commitment to their joint defense against North Korea.
The South's Northwest Islands Defense Command held a combined exercise involving thousands of troops from the Army, Navy, Marine Corps and Air Force here on Baengnyeong Island, near the tense maritime border in the Yellow Sea, the first of its kind since the command's launch in June this year.
The exercise took place as South Korean Defense Minister Kim Kwan-jin and U.S. Secretary of Defense Leon Panetta discussed ways to bolster their joint response against possible North Korean threats during the 43rd annual Security Consultative Meeting (SCM) in Seoul. The two defense chiefs said they agreed to complete a joint operational plan, called the "South Korea-U.S. Counter-Provocation Plan," this year.
On the island, the South Korean forces trained under simulated battle conditions in which North Korea violated the Northern Limit Line (NLL), a de facto maritime border, and the South responded by firing its K-9 self-propelled howitzer.
Waters near the NLL have seen bloody naval skirmishes and deadly armed provocations by the North. Yeonpyeong Island, one of the border islands in the Yellow Sea, was bombed by the North last November and four people, including two civilians, were killed.
South Korea's Air Force deployed KF-16 fighters and the Army dispatched its AH-1S Cobra helicopters in another simulated situation in which North Korea fires artillery south of the NLL and sends down hovercraft.
"This exercise is aimed at improving the Northwest Islands Defense Command's defense posture against provocations and all-out warfare," said a Marine Lt. Maj. Lee Young-gyun, a battalion commander taking part in the exercise. "All Marines protecting these islands are always fully prepared, knowing North Korea can provoke at any moment."