S. Korea verifies counterplan against N. Korean provocation

SEOUL, June 7 (Yonhap) -- South Korea has set in place a combined military
operation plan to counter the escalating threat of an armed North Korean
provocation along their western sea border, a government official said Sunday.

Gen. Kim Tae-young, chairman of South Korea's Joint Chiefs of Staff, reported to
President Lee Myung-bak on the combined plan to attack North Korea via air, land
and sea should the communist state shoot a missile at South Korean naval vessels,
an unnamed military official said.
President Lee visited the Theater Air Control Center in Osan over the weekend
amid sharpening military tensions following Pyongyang's warning against the
safety of naval vessels operating near the Northern Limit Line (NLL), drawn by a
U.S. commander at the end of the 1950-53 Korean War.
"This is our countermeasure to prevent North Korea from further shooting of
missiles," the unnamed official said.
North Korea, which conducted its second nuclear test on May 25 and appears to be
moving to test-fire a long-range ballistic missile on the west coast, says the
NLL should be drawn farther south.
Relations between the two Koreas have fallen to their lowest level in a decade
after the conservative Lee administration was inaugurated in Seoul in February
with a pledge to get tough on the North's nuclear weapons programs. The Korean
Peninsula technically remains in a state of war, as the Korean War ended in a
ceasefire, not a formal peace treaty.
hayney@yna.co.kr
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