South Korea warns North Korea against further provocation

This article is more than 10 years old
President Lee Myung-bak says he feels he failed to protect citizens, as China seeks urgent talks on crisis in peninsula
South Korean president Lee Myung-bak
South Korean President Lee Myung-bak makes a special statement regarding North Korea's attack on Yeonpyeong Island. Photograph: Yonhap/EPA
in Beijing and agencies
Sun 28 Nov 2010 20.55 EST

South Korea's president said early this morning he felt responsibility for failing to protect citizens from North Korea's shelling last week and warned the North against further provocations.

Lee Myung-bak described Tuesday's shelling of a tiny South Korean island, which killed four people, as an "inhumane crime".

As Lee spoke, a nuclear-powered US supercarrier and a South Korean destroyer held joint military exercises. The show of force came almost a week after the attack on Yeonpyeong Island killed four, including two civilians, and sent tensions soaring in the region.

China has called for a meeting of the six nations involved in the stalled North Korean denuclearisation talks.

South Korea and Japan gave a tepid response to the proposal today. Analysts believe negotiations are the most plausible outcome of the conflict, but predict it will take time for the parties to come to the table. The North Korean artillery attack was the most serious incident since the sinking of a warship by what was found to be a North Korean torpedo.


Beijing, which objected to the exercises, sought a return to diplomacy, with its nuclear envoy calling for an urgent meeting with the nuclear negotiators from North and South Korea, Japan, the US and Russia. Wu Dawei said it would not be a resumption of the six-party talks but might "help create the conditions" for them to restart.

Seoul said it would "carefully consider" China's suggestion, a remark read by many as in effect a rejection. President Lee Myung-bak's office said earlier that he had told a visiting Chinese delegation Beijing should contribute to peace in a "more objective and responsible" manner.











