A South Korean Army solider aims his machine gun into a bunker at the Demilitarized Zone that separates the two Koreas in Cheorwon, South Korea, Thursday, Dec. 2, 2010. South Korean lawmakers slammed the government Thursday over revelations the country's spies failed to take seriously intelligence from August that indicated North Korea might attack a front-line island.
A South Korean Army solider aims his machine gun into a bunker at the Demilitarized Zone that separates the two Koreas in Cheorwon, South Korea, Thursday, Dec. 2, 2010. South Korean lawmakers slammed the government Thursday over revelations the country's spies failed to take seriously intelligence from August that indicated North Korea might attack a front-line island.
A South Korean Army solider aims his machine gun from a bunker the Demilitarized Zone that separates the two Koreas in Cheorwon, South Korea, Thursday, Dec. 2, 2010. South Korean lawmakers slammed the government Thursday over revelations the country's spies failed to take seriously intelligence from August that indicated North Korea might attack a front-line island.
A South Korean Army solider aims his machine gun from a bunker the Demilitarized Zone that separates the two Koreas in Cheorwon, South Korea, Thursday, Dec. 2, 2010. South Korean lawmakers slammed the government Thursday over revelations the country's spies failed to take seriously intelligence from August that indicated North Korea might attack a front-line island.
In this Wednesday, Dec. 1, 2010 photo, broken glass is left scattered across an abandoned street of a destroyed neighborhood following the North Korea's Nov. 23 attack on Yeonpyeong Island, South Korea.
In this Wednesday, Dec. 1, 2010 photo, broken glass is left scattered across an abandoned street of a destroyed neighborhood following the North Korea's Nov. 23 attack on Yeonpyeong Island, South Korea.
South Korean soldiers wait for supplies to arrive by ferry at the port on South Korea's Yeonpyeong Island Thursday, Dec. 2, 2010.
South Korean soldiers wait for supplies to arrive by ferry at the port on South Korea's Yeonpyeong Island Thursday, Dec. 2, 2010.
South Korean military veterans, who arrived a two days earlier to help the military and residents of Yeonpyeong Island, South Korea, wait for the ferry to return to the mainland Thursday, Dec. 2, 2010.
South Korean military veterans, who arrived a two days earlier to help the military and residents of Yeonpyeong Island, South Korea, wait for the ferry to return to the mainland Thursday, Dec. 2, 2010.
A resident of South Korea's Yeonpyeong Island cries as she returned home after crossing by ferry from the mainland Thursday, Dec. 2, 2010.
A resident of South Korea's Yeonpyeong Island cries as she returned home after crossing by ferry from the mainland Thursday, Dec. 2, 2010.
A resident cleans her house destroyed by North Korean shelling, on the Yeonpyeong Island, South Korea, Thursday, Dec. 2, 2010.
A resident cleans her house destroyed by North Korean shelling, on the Yeonpyeong Island, South Korea, Thursday, Dec. 2, 2010.
Rescued dog and cats wait for a ferry to the mainland with South Korean animal rights activists at a port of Yeonpyeong Island, South Korea, Thursday, Dec. 2, 2010. The Nov. 23 artillery barrage killed four people, two South Korean marines and two civilians, and sharply raised tensions on the divided peninsula.
Rescued dog and cats wait for a ferry to the mainland with South Korean animal rights activists at a port of Yeonpyeong Island, South Korea, Thursday, Dec. 2, 2010. The Nov. 23 artillery barrage killed four people, two South Korean marines and two civilians, and sharply raised tensions on the divided peninsula.
South Korean soldiers watch the ships anchored temporarily in the waters off South Korea'sYeonpyeong Island Thursday, Dec. 2, 2010.
South Korean soldiers watch the ships anchored temporarily in the waters off South Korea'sYeonpyeong Island Thursday, Dec. 2, 2010.
South Korean soldiers carry their supplies at a port of South Korea's Yeonpyeong Island Thursday, Dec. 2, 2010.
South Korean soldiers carry their supplies at a port of South Korea's Yeonpyeong Island Thursday, Dec. 2, 2010.
South Korean medics wait a ferry to pick up their medical supplies at a port of the Yeonpyeong Island, South Korea, Thursday, Dec. 2, 2010.
South Korean medics wait a ferry to pick up their medical supplies at a port of the Yeonpyeong Island, South Korea, Thursday, Dec. 2, 2010.
A resident of Yeonpyeong Island reacts as she returns home after crossing by ferry from the mainland at a port of the Yeonpyeong Island, South Korea, Thursday, Dec. 2, 2010. The Nov. 23 artillery barrage killed four people, two South Korean marines and two civilians, and sharply raised tensions on the divided peninsula.
A resident of Yeonpyeong Island reacts as she returns home after crossing by ferry from the mainland at a port of the Yeonpyeong Island, South Korea, Thursday, Dec. 2, 2010. The Nov. 23 artillery barrage killed four people, two South Korean marines and two civilians, and sharply raised tensions on the divided peninsula.
South Korean military veterans, who have been in Yeonpyeong Island for two days to help the military and islanders, wait a ferry to return to the mainland at a port of the island, South Korea, Thursday, Dec. 2, 2010. The Nov. 23 artillery barrage killed four people, two South Korean marines and two civilians on the island, and sharply raised tensions on the divided peninsula.
South Korean military veterans, who have been in Yeonpyeong Island for two days to help the military and islanders, wait a ferry to return to the mainland at a port of the island, South Korea, Thursday, Dec. 2, 2010. The Nov. 23 artillery barrage killed four people, two South Korean marines and two civilians on the island, and sharply raised tensions on the divided peninsula.
South Korea's spies had information indicating North Korea might attack a front-line island in August, but the intelligence chief dismissed it as a routine threat.
Yeonpyeong Island, a tiny enclave of civilians and military bases located near a disputed maritime border, endured a barrage of North Korean shells last week, and lawmakers in Seoul slammed the government Thursday for the intelligence failure. The surprise revelation came the day before in an unusually candid private briefing by spy chief Won Sei-hoon.
In the wake of the attack ? in which two South Korean marines and two civilians died ? the defense minister has resigned. President Lee Myung-bak has been criticized for leading a military whose response to the attack was seen as too slow and too weak: The North fired 170 rounds compared with 80 returned by South Korea.
Won told lawmakers that South Korea had intercepted North Korean military communications in August that indicated Pyongyang was preparing to attack Yeonpyeong and other islands in a disputed slice of sea that has often been the focus of North Korean aggression. Won didn't expect that attack to be on civilian areas and considered it a "routine threat," according to the office of lawmaker Choi Jae-sung who attended the closed-door session.
"Our intelligence system didn't work," Jun Byung-hun, the chief policymaker of the main opposition Liberal Democratic Party, said in a statement Thursday.
The National Intelligence Service declined to comment.
"It's a clear dereliction of duty by the military and intelligence authorities," the conservative Munhwa Ilbo newspaper said in an editorial Thursday. "It frankly showed the national security system is basically in serious disorder."
South Korea's Joint Chiefs of Staff tried to play down Won's comments, saying the intelligence was that North Korea ordered its troops to prepare to return fire should South Korea conduct artillery drills.
That explanation did nothing to cool anger among opposition lawmakers, many of whom were already critical of Lee's handling of the attack.
Liberal Democratic Party floor leader Park Jie-won said even with the world's best weapons, the government "cannot guarantee our national security" if intelligence and military authorities aren't capable of analyzing information.
Meanwhile, about 700 conservative activists rallied against the North, chanting slogans like "Let's retaliate!" and waving small South Korean national flags at an auditorium in Seoul.
Won also told lawmakers that North Korea is likely to strike again. He said the North probably carried out last week's attack in part because it needed a "breakthrough" amid internal dissatisfaction over a plan to transfer power from Kim Jong Il to his youngest son, Kim Jong Un, Choi's office said.
"The artillery attack was part of North Korea's efforts to boost the status and legitimacy of Kim Jong Un," said Atsuhito Isozaki, a North Korea expert at Keio University. "He is too young, with no military credentials. But he is a four-star general, and North Korea had to do something to match his nominal title."
It wasn't clear how much damage North Korea suffered during last week's artillery exchange. But satellite photos showed only about 10 of South Korea's 80 rounds landed near North Korean army barracks along the west coast, according to the office of lawmaker Kwon Young-se who said he saw the images provided Thursday by the National Intelligence Service.
To ease tensions between the Koreas, China has pressed for an emergency meeting in coming days among the six nations who previously negotiated over North Korea's nuclear program ? the two Koreas, China, Russia, Japan and the United States.
"Only when we start talks can we have the possibility of finding a solution," Chinese Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Jiang Yu said Thursday.
Though it walked away from the six-nation talks in April 2009, Pyongyang has since been eager to restart them to gain much-needed fuel oil and aid in exchange for nuclear disarmament. But Washington, Tokyo and Seoul are wary of talking with the North, and their top diplomats planned to meet in Washington on Monday to plot a joint strategy on dealing with North Korea.
Seoul says North Korea must show real commitment to disarm. It noted the North has gone in the wrong direction with its revelation last month of a new uranium enrichment facility that would give North Korea a second way to make nuclear bombs.
Senior Chinese and North Korean officials met in Beijing on Thursday and discussed boosting their countries' ties and other issues. The meeting between high-ranking North Korean official Choe Thae Bok and China's second-most powerful official, Wu Bangguo, was held in a "friendly atmosphere," Pyongyang's official Korean Central News Agency reported.
Yeonpyeong Island was quiet Thursday.
Some residents got off the ferry from the mainland, packed bags at their homes, and then rushed back to catch the return ferry. At one home, a woman swept out broken glass and threw away ruined belongings. Her husband covered windows with sheets of plastic.
South Korea lifted a fishing ban on Yeonpyeong on Wednesday and extended the fishing period by one month, to the end of December, for the fishing zone south of the island, according to Seo Kyong-won, an official of the Ministry for Food, Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries.
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Associated Press writers Kim Kwang-tae and Seulki Kim in Seoul, Shino Yuasa in Tokyo, Tini Tran in Beijing and photographer David Guttenfelder in Yeonpyeong contributed to this report.
Source: http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=131531657&ft=1&f=
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