Danger Room What's Next in National Security Previous post * By Spencer Ackerman * November 23, 2010 | * 9:42 am | * Categories: Rogue States
http://www.wired.com/dangerroom/2010/11/howitzers-blast-jets-readied-after-north-korea-shells-south/
At least two South Korean marines are dead and over a dozen are wounded after North Korea fired off hundreds of artillery rounds at a South Korean island. Seoul called it a clear violation of the shaky armistice that’s held between the two nations since 1953. Can the Koreas back down before another disastrous war starts on the peninsula?
Every year, the South Korean military holds a massive exercise called Hoguk, or “Defending the Nation,” in which tens of thousands of troops from across the services work on their coordination in the face of an attack. And every year, the North Koreans denounce it as “dangerous war maneuvers” as that simulate an invasion. So this year’s exercise, featuring 70,000 troops, many drilling in the Yellow Sea, should come as no surprise. It’s expected to begin shortly.
Except early today, the North began shelling the inhabited island of Yeonpyeongdo, about two miles south of the maritime armistice line. According to the Korea Times – which headlines its piece “1st NK Attack on S. Korean Soil” — the North’s army is believed “to have about eight 27-kilometer-range 130mm howitzers and eight 76 guns with a range of 12 kilometers,” presumably at use in the strike. 
The so-called "131-ton medium-Shanghai class patrol boat," that Western China 62 high-speed gunboats of the title (since the West was first found that the gunboats in Shanghai). The picture shows May 31, 2009, the North Korea's nuclear test, a North Korean fishing boats hiding behind the 62-type gunboat reconnaissance Yeonpyeong Island waters. South Korea's gunboats repeatedly accused North Korea of China and the Korean fishing boats to do a cover provocative in disputed waters.