[quote]
South Korea's defence minister has resigned amid criticism of his handling of North Korea's shelling of an island near their disputed maritime border.
President Lee Myung-bak will name Kim Tae-young's successor on Friday.
Tuesday's barrage left two South Korean civilians and two marines dead, and sent regional tensions soaring.
South Korea has increased troop numbers on Yeonpyeong and other nearby islands, and announced more rigorous rules of engagement for future incidents.
Mr Kim had been urged to step down by legislators from both governing and opposition parties over his handling of the shelling.
In his resignation statement, the minister said he took full responsibility.[/quote]More powerful response:
[quote]
The government also said it was changing its rules of engagement to allow it to respond more forcefully to similar incidents. The old rules have been criticised as too passive.
The BBC's Chris Hogg in Seoul says the cabinet had decided that under the old rules of engagement there was too much emphasis on preventing a military incident escalating into something worse.
In future, the South would implement different levels of response, depending on whether the North attacked military or civilian targets, a presidential spokesman said.
A senior government official told the BBC that Seoul wanted to be more flexible in order to keep the North Koreans guessing as to their response.
The South Korean broadcaster, KBS, said the new rules called for the South to fire back "with shots two to three times more powerful than the enemy artillery".
North Korea meanwhile threatened further military action if the South continued on its "path of military provocation", the official KCNA news agency reported.
Pyongyang has blamed Seoul for this week's incident on Yeonpyeong, insisting it did not fire first. The South was holding military exercises in the area at the time, and returned fire when the North's shells began to land.
The North also accused the United States of stoking tensions - saying it helped draw up the "illegal" western maritime border between the two Koreas.
About 28,000 US troops are stationed in South Korea.[/quote]Some kind of evil part inside of me hopes something happens, but the rest of me doesn't.
Source: [URL]http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-pacific-11838750[/URL]
Also: [img]http://gyazo.com/87877fee3babeb4dba6803dce66e1a4f.png[/img]
Couldn't take the heat?
Let's hope his predecessor isn't an aggressive man
[QUOTE=spog;26293957]Let's hope his predecessor isn't an aggressive man[/QUOTE]
Yeah, SK doesn't need aggressive defense from its defense minister :smug:
[QUOTE=spog;26293957]Let's hope his predecessor isn't an aggressive man[/QUOTE]
the new guy's predecessor was a passive man, so lets hope the guys successor is an agressive man
[QUOTE=Zethiwag;26293944]Couldn't take the heat?[/QUOTE]
He technically failed his job by having SK come under fire.
[QUOTE=Emperor Scorpious II;26294055]He technically failed his job by having SK come under fire.[/QUOTE]
yes, this guy should have deflected the artillery shells with asian mind powers
[QUOTE=Anteep2;26294086]yes, this guy should have deflected the artillery shells with asian mind powers[/QUOTE]
I didn't say it was his fault. It wasn't. But it's politics, blame must fall on [I]someone[/I], sadly.
Criticism? Did they [I]want[/I] him to order a counter-attack?
Even if he´s defence minister. I´m pretty sure Ill or Un could just call him with an offer. Artillery or death penalty for something.
Don´t know if that´s what happend though
what a fucked up situation.
Goddamn, either sign a peace treaty or just finish it. It's just unnatural for a war to freeze in tension like this.
[QUOTE=Anteep2;26294086]yes, this guy should have deflected the artillery shells with asian mind powers[/QUOTE]
shouldve recharged his shields more like it
They should just find the best terran Starcraft player and put him in charge.
Unless South Korea decides to switch to zerg.
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