South Korea holds huge civil defense drills

Source: Press TV
http://www.presstv.ir/detail/155571.html


South Korea has held nationwide civil defense drills amid escalating tensions with North Korea in the wake of an exchange of artillery fire last month between the two neighbors.

The 15-minute exercise was held on Wednesday in Seoul and other South Korean cities, AFP reported.

A dozen jet fighters were mobilized to simulate airstrikes by the North in the civil exercise -- the most extensive since a civil defense law was passed in 1975.

The South's National Emergency Management Agency described the situation on the Korean Peninsula as "grave" after the artillery exchange between the two countries on November 23. The incident was the first shelling of a civilian area in the South since the 1950-53 Korean War.

"Public concern has been growing over North Korea's provocations," the South Korean government agency said in a statement, citing continued military threats, high tensions in the Yellow Sea and the possibility of a third nuclear test by the North.

A report by US experts in mid-November revealed an apparently operational uranium enrichment plant in the North, which Pyongyang claims is part of a peaceful atomic energy program.

But officials in the United States believe the plant could easily be altered to produce weapons-grade uranium to add to the country's plutonium stockpile.

On Tuesday, the US State Department claimed the North has "at least one other" uranium enrichment site apart from the one disclosed at its main nuclear complex at the Yongbyon research center, and that the facility “remains a significant area of concern.”

China, seen as North Korea's main ally and business partner, has called for a new meeting of envoys for six-party talks to resolve the latest crisis on the peninsula.

But the United States, Japan and South Korea say a return to negotiations at this point could be seen as rewarding the North's aggression.

They are trying to pressure China to take a tougher action toward Pyongyang to rein in its Korean ally.