War games set Koreas on collision course

• Anti-North Korean demonstrators burn flags and pictures of Kim Jong-il in Seoul. Picture: Getty

The warning was issued as the North Koreans appeared to be carrying out artillery drills within view of the island that its batteries showered with missiles earlier this week.

Its apparent drill came as the US commander in South Korea toured Yeonpyeong island to survey the damage from the shelling three days earlier. A nuclear-powered US aircraft carrier is on its way to the Yellow Sea for joint US-South Korean exercises next week, stinging the North to lash out.

South Korea's government has struggled to recover from the surprise attacks that killed four people, including two civilians, and forced the defence minister to resign. President Lee Myung-bak yesterday appointed a former chairman of the joint chiefs of staff to the post.

Tensions have soared between the Koreas since Tuesday's attack destroyed large parts of Yeonpyeong. It came eight months after a torpedo sank a South Korean warship, killing 46 sailors, highlighting the South's vulnerability 60 years after the end of the Korean War.

Mr Lee has ordered reinforcements for the 4,000 troops on Yeonpyeong and four other Yellow Sea islands, as well as top-level weaponry and upgraded rules of engagement.

The heightened animosity between the Koreas comes as the North undergoes a delicate transition of power from leader Kim Jong-il to his young, inexperienced son Kim Jong-un, who is in his late 20s.

Washington and Seoul have pressed China to use its influence on Pyongyang to ease tensions amid worries of all-out war. A dispatch yesterday from Chinese state media said Beijing's foreign minister had met the North Korean ambassador.

The North sees the US-South Korean drills, set to start on Sunday, as a major provocation. "The situation on the Korean peninsula is inching closer to the brink of war," a report in the North's official Korean Central News Agency said. One official boasted that Pyongyang's military "precisely aimed and hit the enemy artillery base" as punishment for South Korean military drills and warned of another "shower of dreadful fire".

China also expressed concern over any war games in waters within its exclusive economic zone, which extends 230 miles from its coast and includes areas south of Yeonpyeong.

The US commander in South Korea, General Walter Sharp, said during his visit that Tuesday's attack was a violation of the armistice signed at the end of the three-year Korean War."We at United Nations Command will investigate this completely and call on North Korea to stop any future attacks," he said.

Washington keeps more than 28,000 troops in South Korea, which North Korea says is the why it wants nuclear weapons.