Kim Jong Un Inspects IV Army Corps Units

Kim Jong Un (2nd R) watches members of an artillery company training during an inspection of IV Army Corps in South Hwanghae Province (Photo: KCNA-Yonhap)

DPRK media reported on 25 February (Saturday) that Kim Jong Un (Kim Cho’ng-u’n) inspected several units under the Korean People’s Army [KPA] IV Corps, including its 4th battalion which was responsible for the artillery shelling of  Yo’np’yo’ng Island on 23 November 2010.  According to KCNA he was accompanied by Gen. Kim Myong Kuk, Gen. Kim Won Hong, Gen. Pak Jae Gyong, Col. Gen. Hwang Pyong So, Col. Gen. Kim Chun Sam and personnel of the KPA Supreme Command.

He inspected the 1st and 4th Battalions under KPA Unit 403 stationed in the forefront area.

He gave the service personnel of the battalions pairs of binoculars and automatic rifles as souvenirs before having photo sessions with them.

He inspected combat positions of the 4th Battalion to learn in detail about its combat preparations.

The battalion is a proud sub-unit well known to the world as it turned Yonphyong Island into the one in flames by retaliating against south Korean puppet warmongers’ reckless shelling into territorial waters of the DPRK side to launch aggression through merciless shelling.

He highly appreciated the feats the soldiers performed by showing what the arms in the hands of the powerful revolutionary army of Mt. Paektu and the battle fought by it were like.

He went round a soldiers’ bedroom and wash-cum-bath house of a company under the battalion and took deep care of their living.

After viewing the combat positions of the sub-unit in the light of terrains and combat preparation, he said the present deployment of the sub-unit was not suitable from a tactical point of view, setting forth a task to courageously transfer and deploy its forces in new positions.

He went round a soldiers’ bedroom, education room and various other places of a company under the 1st Battalion to take warm care of the soldiers’ living.

He inspected a forward command post of KPA Unit 688 stationed in a forefront area.

He mounted the forward command post where he learned about the deployment of reinforced forces and equipment of the unit defending Yonphyong Island of the south Korean puppet army.

Feasting his eyes on vast defence theatres in the forefront area and the land of the south whose sky is overcast with dark clouds of war due to the enemy’s preparations for a new war of aggression such as Key Resolve and Foal Eagle joint military exercises, he learned in detail about the terrains, the distribution of forces of the unit and its guard duty.

He put forward the important tasks which would serve as guidelines for increasing the combat capability of the unit in every way and consolidating the defence theatre as firm as a rock in view of provocations of the enemy.

He continued his journey to inspect a battalion under KPA Unit 493 stationed in a forefront area.

He mounted a watch post of a costal artillery battalion under the unit where he looked over Paekryong Island near from it and learned about its guard duty.

Asking if there is any change in the enemy’s recent movements and how combat and technical equipment and forces are deployed, he underlined the need to further increase the density of firing in the future and steadily revise and supplement the proposal for sharing the firing duties and using equipment as required by a modern warfare and the changing deployment of enemy’s forces.

He guided soldiers of Artillery Piece No. 1 of the Second Company under the battalion in firepower training.

He inspected a battalion under KPA Unit 641 stationed in the forefront area.

He gave the soldiers of the battalion a pair of binoculars, automatic rife and machinegun as souvenirs before having a photo session with them.

Making the rounds of an education room, bedroom, mess hall and other cultural and educational and supply service facilities, he paid deep attention to the service and living of soldiers.

The southwestern sector of the front is a hot spot where a war may break out any moment due to the enemy’s reckless provocations for aggression, he noted, calling for keeping the service personnel on utmost alert in view of the touch-and-go situation. He ordered them to make a powerful retaliatory strike at the enemy, should the enemy intrude even 0.001 mm into the waters of the country where its sovereignty is exercised.

Kim Jong Un (2nd R) visits a coastal defense position during an inspection of the IV Army Corps (Photo: KCNA-Yonhap)

Kim Jong Un (2nd R) looks through binoculars from a command post, as part of an inspection of the IV Army Corps. Also seen in attendance are Gen. Kim Won Hong (L), Col. Gen. Pyon In Son (2nd L) and Gen. Pak Jae Gyong (R) According to South Korean media, Col. Gen. Pyon, a former deputy defense minister, assumed command of IV Corps in August 2011 (Photo: KCNA-Yonhap)

KJU’s appearance was reported not long after the DPRK’s National Defense Commission [NDC] published a report in state media that threatened “a sacred war to counter of our own style and protect the security of the nation and the peace of the country” as a reaction to the annual joint US-ROK military exercises Key Resolve/Foal Eagle.  The NDC’s statement was released as US and DPRK diplomats concluded a third interaction over the DPRK’s nuclear weapons program in Beijing.

The Lee Myung Bak group of traitors has embarked upon the road of kicking off again DPRK-targeted Key Resolve and Foal Eagle joint military exercises in league with the brigandish U.S. imperialists, defying strong domestic and foreign public protest and condemnation.

Huge troops of the U.S. imperialist aggressor forces and their strike means have already been deployed in south Korea and in its vicinity and huge forces of the three services of the puppet army have been put on a wartime posture.

Key Resolve and Foal Eagle are unpardonable war hysteria kicked up by the hooligans to desecrate our mourning period and an unpardonable infringement upon our sovereignty and dignity.

This is, at the same time, a blatant challenge to peace and security on the Korean Peninsula and an undisguised act of disturbing them.

The on-going development goes to prove that the Lee group which is more dead than alive, forsaken by the times, is still resorting to the last-ditch moves for war, backed by its American master.

In view of the prevailing situation, the National Defence Commission of the DPRK clarifies the following principled stand internally and externally:

First. Our army and people will foil the moves of the group of traitors to the nation and warmongers at home and abroad for a new war with a sacred war of our own style.

We have so far made every possible effort to avert a war and defend peace with a high degree of patience and magnanimity.

The Lee group and the warmongers at home and abroad are, however, unhesitatingly plunging to the road of an adventurous war, dreaming of “Egyptian style change” and “Libyan style victory”, ignorant of who their rival is.

War maneuvers staged against the belligerent party are, in essence, a silent declaration of a war.

The declaration of the war is bound to be accompanied by a corresponding physical retaliation.

Now that a war has been declared against us, the army and people are firmly determined to counter it with a sacred war of our own style and protect the security of the nation and the peace of the country.

The target of this war is the Lee group and hordes of warmongers at home and abroad.

The Lee group is hordes of traitors for all ages as it is rubbing salt into the wound of the compatriots grieving over the great loss to the nation through a renewed saber-rattling, not content with the high treason it had already committed during that period.

The U.S. imperialists are the sworn enemy keen to launch another war of aggression to impose “American style political mode” upon us, not content with the painful tragedy of division forced upon our nation, the tragedy that has lasted for more than half a century.

The sacred war will make a clean sweep of the Lee group and those warmongers from this land by the war mode of our own style, our strong striking means unknown to the world.

Second. The just struggle of the people in the south and overseas compatriots will be further intensified to bring down the Lee regime under the motto of peace against war.

The Lee group is nothing but human scum which had been forsaken by all Koreans already long ago.

“Myung Bak, quit” and “Let’s judge the Lee Myung Bak regime and set up a new government for national reconciliation.” This is the shout of the political and social circles in south Korea and the mind-set there.

The Lee regime is little short of a ship in distress which began sinking in face of the stormy waves of the angry public.

We admonished the group enough to make it understand and set an example in the four years of its office and showed it through an actual battle what our strike that turned waters into a sea in flames.

This being a hard reality, the Lee regime is still persisting in sycophancy, submission and treachery, failing to come to its senses.

That is why we branded the group of traitors as the one which should not be let to go scot-free.

In response to the mind-set in the south, our army and people will encourage and firmly back the people in the south and overseas compatriots in their nation-wide struggle to bring down the Lee regime in the idea of attaching importance to the nation and putting it above anything else and from a patriotic stand.

Third. Our army and people will show the U.S. imperialist warmongers hell-bent on war of aggression and intervention what their arms and real war are like.

It is the U.S. imperialist aggressors who are chiefly to blame for having driven into a phase of war the unstable situation on the peninsula where neither war nor peace has persisted for such a long period. It is again those warmongers who have staged ceaseless provocative war maneuvers in south Korea and in its vicinity, pursuant to their scenarios for a war of aggression against the north to confirm their feasibility.

In view of the intensified moves of the U.S. imperialists to ignite a war against the DPRK, they will shatter reckless military provocations, arms build-up and war maneuvers with increased posture to fight a resolute battle against the U.S. and launch a struggle of high intensify to drive out of this land the U.S. imperialist aggressor forces, the main hurdle lying in the way of achieving peace and security on the peninsula.

They will always keep the bases of the U.S. imperialist aggressor forces and centers for their military operations against the DPRK within striking range and wipe them out at a single blow, should they provoke us.

Nuclear weapons are not the monopoly of the U.S. We have war means more powerful than the U.S. nukes and ultra-modern striking equipment which no one has ever possessed.

The U.S. is sadly mistaken if it thinks it is safe as its mainland is far away across the ocean.

There is no limit to the striking intensity and range of our army and people to wipe out the aggressors.

It is their unchangeable stand to show the enemy what their arms and real war are like.

The ongoing struggle to bury the group of traitors and warmongers at home and abroad is a patriotic struggle on which the destiny of the nation in the new century of Juche year hinges.

No force on earth can overpower the single-mindedly united army and people of the DPRK.

Under the leadership of the peerless brilliant commander of Mt. Paektu they will usher in a new era of national reconciliation and peace and prosperity proudly and forcefully, shattering every war move of the enemy.

Kim Jong Il Conducts KPA Field Inspections After “Sea of Fire” Statement

Kim Jong Il (6th L) stands for a commemorative photo following his inspection of KPA large combined Unit #233. (KCNA-Yonhap)

A view of Kaemori, South Hwanghae Province (Photo: Google image)

Kim Jong Il traveled to South Hwanghae Province and inspected two Korean People’s Army [KPA] units, one day after the KPA Supreme Command issued a report that threatened “a sea of fire” in the south.  DPRK media reported on 26 November that he inspected KPA Air Force (KPAF) Unit #1016 and KPA large combined unit (taeyonhap pudae) #233, described by KCNA as being in “the western sector of the front.”  KCNA reports:

He expressed great satisfaction over the fact that the commanding officers and servicepersons of the unit have turned all operational theatres into impregnable fortresses to devotedly protect the Party, the revolution, the country and its people and firmly guarantee the great revolutionary surge with a powerful military force and are fully prepared to beat back any enemy’s surprise invasion in good time.

He praised them for standing firm guard over the forefront of the country with strong fighting spirit and faith in sure victory to wipe out all enemies on this land with just retaliatory blows and get the Korean people’s long-pent up grudge settled without fail if they disturb the DPRK’s legitimate exercise of sovereignty through reckless saber-rattling.

He expressed expectation and conviction that all servicepersons of the unit would boost its combat capability in every way to cope with the enemies’ provocations and consolidate all its defense theatres as firm as a rock, thus performing laudable military feats on the sacred road of defending the country.

This photo shows a graveyard (circled in red) in the North Korean border county of Kangnyong in South Hwanghae Province. The photo was taken from an observatory on South Korea's western border island of Yeonpyeong on Nov. 21, 2011, the first anniversary of North Korea's indiscriminate bombardment on the island. Scores of tombs were built recently in the graveyards, sparking off assumptions that they might be coastal positions. (Yonhap)

Kim Jong Il visits a stone factory in an image broadcast on KCTV 26 November. Also seen in attendance are Kim Jong Un (R) and Gen. Hyon Chol Hae (2nd R) (Photo: KCNA-Yonhap)

Kim Jong Il’s visit to the area followed reports that the KPA added or reinforced a number of coastal artillery positions.  According to ROK media, some coastal artillery guns may have been placed and concealed in a cemetery in Kangryong County.  Incidentally, Kim Jong Il was reported to have visited a stone factory on 25 November.  During his KPA inspections KJI was reported to be accompanied by Pak Jae Gyong, Kim Won Hong, Jang Song Taek, Kim Jong Un, Ri Yong Ho, Hyon Chol Hae and Kim Kyong Ok.  Also reported to be in attendance were “staff members of the KPA Supreme Command.”    On 24 November (Thursday) the KPA Supreme Command published a report denouncing ROK military exercises held in the West Sea:

The military warmongers dared to announce that the rehearsal is aimed to remind the DPRK of victims and lesson from the Yonphyong Island Shelling and review their “perfect readiness for counteraction.”

It is also intended to show their will to decisively punish “not only the base of provocation but also commanding posts of all echelons including supporters in the north” with the combined forces of three services in case the DPRK starts a military action, they asserted.

As for last year’s Yonphyong Island shelling, it was a legitimate self-defensive step against the provocateurs who dared to make a clumsy fire on the inviolable territorial waters of the DPRK despite its army’s advance warning.

This being a hard reality, they launched the anti-DPRK war rehearsal far from drawing due lesson on the first anniversary of the shelling. It is little short of a new political and military provocation to the army and people of the DPRK.

Such disgusting behavior by the military warmongers, who go recklessly without knowing about the present trend of situation and their domestic condition, will arouse criticism and ridicules from among the people at home and abroad.

They should not forget the lesson taught by the Yonphyong Island Shelling one year ago.

They should be mindful that If they dare to impair the dignity of the DPRK again and fire one bullet or shell toward its inviolable territorial waters, sky and land, the deluge of fire on Yonphyong Island will lead to that in Chongwadae and the sea of fire in Chongwadae to the deluge of fire sweeping away the stronghold of the group of traitors.

The DPRK revolutionary armed forces are in full readiness to go into a decisive battle to counter any military provocation.

This report was one of several missives issued by the DPRK during the week that marked one year since the 23 November 2010 Yo’np’yo’ng Island artillery shelling incident which resulted in the death of two ROK Marines and two civilians.  According to Yonhap, the first mention of the anniversary appeared in a 22 November essay on Urminjjokkiri which said West Sea exercises were “clearly an attempt to create another military provocation like the Yeonpyong-do incident, and ultimately carry out an all-out attack on the North.”  This essay was similar to information bulletin #987 released by the Committee for the Peaceful Reunification of Korea [CPRK]:

They are seriously mistaken if they think they will go scot-free after they commit provocation in the future, too.

The puppet group is kicking off the sinister confrontation racket, instead of drawing due lesson from last year’s Yonphyong Island shelling case. Such action will bring itself to shame and reveal its colors as a war hawk more glaringly.

The reality clearly shows that “flexibility of the policy toward the north” much touted by the group is no more than wordplay to deceive the public opinion.

The puppet group has only the extreme hostility toward fellow countrymen and sinister intention to go for confrontation and war with the DPRK.

Its reckless confrontation moves are a last-ditch effort to arrest the daily growing demand of the South Korean people for switchover in the policy toward the north, quell the desire for reunification through alliance with the north and free itself from the wretched plight into which it has been driven at home and abroad due to its serious ruling crisis.

The army and people of the DPRK are now in full readiness to go into action and annihilate the enemy, with surging indignation at the evermore pronounced anti-DPRK smear campaign and war moves of the puppet group.

ROK officials did not respond to the DPRK’s statements.  Yonhap reports:

“We don’t find it worth responding to North Korean rhetoric that flies in the face of common sense,” a military official said on the condition of anonymity. “If North Korea wants to engage in dialogue, it should stop clinging to irrational logic and immediately apologize for its torpedoing of the Cheonan warship and its shelling of Yeonpyeong Island.”

The official was referring to two deadly armed provocations by North Korea last year, which killed 50 South Koreans, mostly soldiers.

Another official at the Unification Ministry, which handles inter-Korean affairs, also made a similar comment on the North’s latest harsh rhetoric.

On Thursday, the North’s military threatened to turn Cheong Wa Dae, South Korea’s presidential office, into “a sea of fire.” It came a day after South Korea held military exercises in the Yellow Sea to mark the first anniversary of the Yeonpyeong shelling.

The South Korean official said these exercises only strengthened the military’s defense posture and its determination to strike back against future North Korean provocations.

“If North Korea provokes again, our forces will thoroughly punish them and make them regret their action,” the official said.

Sources said North Korea put its forces on heightened alert as South Korea staged exercises in the Yellow Sea.

KPA To Begin Abbreviated Winter Drills on December 1

The Korean People’s Army [KPA] and Worker-Peasant Red Guards will begin the winter drill on 1 December.  Yonhap, citing a DPRK source, reports that the annual winter drills will last until 20 December which was described as “short than usual”:

The news of the planned drills came weeks after North Korea test-fired anti-ship missiles twice by using its IL-28 bomber in the western waters.

North Korea has also reinforced coastal artillery gun positions near its base close to the tense western sea border with South Korea, in an apparent response to Seoul’s move to bolster its artillery bases on its border islands.

Last year, the North torpedoed a South Korean warship and shelled the South’s border island of Yeonpyeong, killing 50 people and driving relations between the sides to the lowest point in decades.

South Korea has recently held a large-scale annual exercise across the country to strengthen its defense readiness against possible North Korean provocation.

Meanwhile, after the reported promotion of Gen. U Tong Chuk, another rumored senior KPA appointment has surfaced.  Gen. Kim Kyok Sik (Kim Kyo’k-sik) has returned to the Korean People’s Army General Staff Department [GSD] in the position of Vice Chief.    From February 2009 to August 2011 he served as commander of the forward-deployed IV Army Corps on the DPRK’s west coast in South Hwanghae Province.

Gen. Kim Kyok Sik (L) (Photo: KCNA)

Gen. Kim had a command role in the artillery shelling of Yonpyong Island on 23 November 2010, and a planning or advisory role in the March 2010 sinking of the ROK naval corvette Chonan.  During early August 2011, according to one report, he inspected coastal artillery units on Yongmae Island, possibly one of his last official acts as commander of the KPA’s forces in the western zone.  Gen. Kim’s return to GSD has caused some Pyongyang watchers to wonder if he was replaced by a corps commander tied to Kim Jong Un (Kim Cho’ng-u’n).  Chosun Ilbo reports:

Immediately before the shelling of Yeonpyeong Island, leader Kim Jong-il and his son and heir Jong-un visited Hwanghae Province, where they reportedly met Kim Kyok-sik.

A former senior North Korean official, who has defected to the South, said Kim’s return to the General Staff is “a kind of reward for his work in the field. It’s not clear whether it’s a promotion, but it’s not a demotion,” he said.

Another South Korean government official said it seems Kim Kyok-sik was replaced as part of Kim Jong-un’s efforts to replace aging frontline commanders with younger generals. “It’s too early to see his dismissal from the Fourth Corps as part of the North’s attempt to seek rapprochement with South Korea,” he added.

From 2007 to 2009 Gen. Kim served as chief of the KPA General Staff.  His February 2009 replacement by current GSD head Ri Yong Ho was interpreted as a demotion.  However, during his time heading GSD, Gen. Kim may have planned the aggressive, forward-leaning policies he enacted as IV Corps commander.  JoongAng reports:

“On Sept. 9, when a military pageant was held to mark the founding of the North Korean regime, Commander Kim was seated separately from other generals,” the source told the JoongAng Ilbo on Wednesday.

“Recently, we witnessed an inauguration of a new commander for the 4th corps and a luxury foreign car appeared at the ceremony,” the source continued. “[Among many scenarios] we are weighing the possibility of his being replaced.”

For South Korea, the hawkish commander’s replacement could be a sign of the North trying to improve ties.

“Kim’s replacement could be in response to our constant demands for apologies and the North taking responsibility for provocations such as the torpedoed Cheonan warship and Yeonpyeong Island,” a government official said.

Some government sources suggested that Kim maybe have been made vice defense minister or deputy chief of the KPA general staff.

“When Kim was transferred to head the 4th corps in 2009 from being the chief of the general staff, some said he was demoted,” a source told JoongAng Ilbo. “However, it turned out later that Kim was in charge of an important task to direct a military clash between the two Koreas near the Northern Limit Line. It could be that he was assigned another important task from the North Korean leader.”

Kim Jong Il walks by KPA general officers after the Foundation Day parade by the Workers' Peasant Red Guards in September 2011

Choe Tae Bok Returns from PRC

Choe Tae-pok greets Wu Bangguo in Beijing on 1 December (Photo: Xinhua)

Choe Tae-pok, SPA Chairman CC KWP Secretary and Political Bureau Member, returned to to the DPRK over the weekend, completing his five-day trip to China.  Choe departed the DPRK last Tuesday (30 November) for Beijing.  Choe spent the last two days of his trip in Jilin Province, where he visited several factories and cultural sites including the Yuwen Middle School, a mandatory pilgrimage point for DPRK elites visiting Jilin.

On 1 December Choe met Wu Bangguo, his PRC counterpart at the Great Hall of the People.  There is also speculation of senior PRC officials traveling to the DPRK, possibly to meet with Kim Chong-il, however there has been no announcement about such a trip.  Choe visit to Bejing was also marked by the DPRK announcement that it will continue to enrich uranium and is constructing a light water reactor.

Asahi Shimbun reports:

Choe Thae Bok, a Politburo member and secretary in the Secretariat of the Workers’ Party of Korea, flew to Beijing for meetings with high-ranking Chinese officials.

One agenda item may be Pyongyang’s response to China’s proposal on Sunday to hold a special meeting of the lead delegates to the six-party talks on North Korea’s nuclear weapons program.

Sources said Chinese officials would likely step up their diplomatic efforts after Japan, South Korea and the United States all but rejected the proposal, saying the timing wasn’t right.

Other diplomatic sources said Kim Yong Il, the director of the party’s International Department, also flew into Beijing on Tuesday on a separate flight for a hurried meeting.

Kim was met by a vehicle operated by the International Department of the Chinese Communist Party’s Central Committee and whisked away. He returned to the airport about 80 minutes later and flew to Cambodia as part of a multination visit to Southeast Asia.

Sources said Kim likely met with Wang Jiarui, the head of the International Department who has close ties with Kim. Wang was at the airport to board a plane for the United States for discussions with American officials.

Kim Yong-il’s remarks in Cambodia were primarily about the DPRK’s environmental policies, but he did address the KPA’s attack on YP-do on 23 November.  KCNA reports:

After giving a detailed account of the fact that the DPRK has directed great efforts to environmental protection, he declared that the WPK and the DPRK government would boost cooperation with international organizations and other countries in the efforts to settle the issue of global environmental protection and climate change.

Stable environment in the vicinity of the country presents itself as the most urgent issue at present in the WPK’s activities for developing national economy and promoting the people’s well-being, he said, adding that outsiders’ interference and constant threat of the forces hostile to the DPRK persist on the Korean Peninsula and in its vicinity even in the 21st century after the demise of the Cold War.

He continued:

The ulterior aim sought by south Korea in perpetrating the recent provocations against the DPRK around Yonphyong Island, the sensitive waters along the maritime boundary line in the West Sea of Korea, was to make the public believe that the DPRK recognized the waters off Yonphyong Island as “territorial waters” of south Korea in case the former does not take any physical counter-action. The DPRK, however, has neither recognized them nor will do so in the future, too.

 

 

VMAR Ri Yong Ho Emerges After YP-do

VMAR Ri Yong Ho (Chief of the KPA General Staff Department [GSD] and Central Military Commission co-Vice Chairman) was reported on 29 November attending a performance of the DPRK’s State Symphony Orchestra.  This was his first public appearance since the DPRK’s 23 November artillery attack on Yeonpyeong Island.  Yonhap reports:

Earlier Monday, the North’s Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) reported that Ri and Kim Jong-il watched an “elegant and exquisite performance” by the North Korean State Symphony Orchestra.

Following the concert, Kim, 68, underlined “the need to represent the spiritual world of the people … and satisfactorily meet their cultural and emotional needs,” the KCNA said.

The official media usually carry reports of Kim’s activities a day or two later. The KCNA said Ri, also 68, was with Kim’s third son, Jong-un, who was unveiled to the world in September and is being groomed to take over from his aging father.

VMAR Ri’s last reported appearance with Kim Jong Il was on 20 November, when the latter participated in a political meeting of the Korean People’s Internal Security Forces.  Ri was not present at any of KJI’s guidance tours in Pyongyang and its surrounding areas that were reported by the DPRK press after artillery attack.  VMAR Ri was also not reported to have attended Kim Jong Il’s tour of three farms in South Hwanghae.  The farms tours were KJI’s last reported public appearances before the KPA’s 23 November attack.

KJI’s tour in South Hwanghae likely included visits to units of the IV Army Corps and the KPA’s Western Region Command, which are headed by Gen. Kim Kyok Sik.  Gen. Kim was observed attending KJI’s tour of the Ryongyon Seaside Fish Farm and the Ryongjong Fish Breeding Ground.   From 2007 to 2009, Gen. Kim served as Chief of the GSD until he was replaced by then-Pyongyng Defense Command chief,  Ri Yong Ho.

North Korean leader Kim Jong-il inspects a duck and fish farm in Ryongyon, South Hwanghae Province, in this undated photo released Monday by the Korean Central News Agency. Gen. Kim Myong-guk (70), a high-ranking official in charge of military operations of the People's Armed Forces, (circled in red) and Jang Song-taek, administration director of the North Korean Workers' Party, are to Kim's left. (KCNA-Yonhap)

Also in attendance at the fish farm was Gen. Kim Myong Kuk, chief of the GSD’s Operations Bureau [GSOB].  The GSOB is technically subordinate to the GSD Chief.  However, Kim Myong Kuk has reported directly to KJI for at least two decades.  He is also perched at several KPA C4 interactions.

Chosun Ilbo reports:

A seemingly innocuous picture released by the North’s official Korean Central News Agency recently showing leader Kim Jong-il and his son Jong-un visiting a duck and a fish farm has fuelled speculation that Tuesday’s attack on Yeonpyeong Island was approved from the very top.

Next to Kim father and son in the picture stands Kim Myong-guk, a four-star general and chief of the People’s Army General Staff in charge of military operations.

The farm is in Ryongyon, which faces Baeknyeong Island and is a strategic post with a heavy concentration of artillery batteries — just like Kangryong, from where North Korea fired at the island. One researcher with a state-run research institute said, “Kim Jong-il quietly visits nearby military bases when he goes on his on-the-spot guidance tours to the provinces, so it’s likely that he visited a base of the frontline Fourth Corps before the attack.”

Seen here is a coastal stronghold in the North Korean county of Kangnyong on the west coast, where North Korea reportedly fired hundreds of rounds of artillery toward the South Korean waters and Yeonpyeong Island on Nov. 23, injuring several soldiers and citizens. This is a file photo taken from Yeonpyeong Island.

North Korea fired dozens of rounds of artillery toward South Korean waters off the island of Yeonpyeong, with some rounds landing directly on the island, around 2:34 p.m. on Nov. 23, injuring several soldiers and citizens. The South Korean military launched an immediate counterattack, firing about 80 K-9 self-propelled artillery shells toward the North's coastal areas. North Korea's major naval bases and artillery deployments in the Yellow Sea are shown in the image. (Yonhap)

Funeral Held for ROK Marines Killed in YP-do Attack

South Korea holds a nationally televised funeral for two marines killed in an artillery clash with North Korea earlier this week, at a military hospital in Seongnam, south of Seoul, on Nov. 27. The two marines and two civilians were killed in the Nov. 23 North Korean artillery attack on Yeonpyeong Island. (Yonhap)

The ROK held a funeral Saturday (27 November) for ROK Marines Sgt. Seo Jeong-woo and Pvt. Moon Kwan-wook who were killed during the DPRK’s artillery attack on YP-do on 23 November.  Yonhap reports:

South Korea began a nationally televised funeral Saturday for two marines killed in an artillery clash with North Korea earlier this week as tension soared on the peninsula ahead of massive U.S.-South Korean naval drills aimed at intimidating Pyongyang.

The funeral, held at a military hospital in the city of Seongnam, just south of Seoul, drew hundreds of ranking government officials, general-grade officers, politicians, religious leaders, anti-North Korea activists and civilians angered by the clash on Tuesday.

North Korea denies initiating the exchange of artillery shells that also killed two South Korean civilians on the western island of Yeonpyeong. Seoul and Washington are set to begin a naval exercise mobilizing a nuclear-powered aircraft carrier in the Yellow Sea on Sunday in a show of force against Pyongyang.

At 2:34 pm KST on 23 November 2010, DPRK fired some 170 artillery shells at YP-do (located near the Northern Limit Line) over two hours in a flagrant and malicious violation of the armistice agreement that ended the Korean War.  About 90 of the KPA’s shells fell into the water, and 80 fell on land.  The DPRK’s attack killed two ROK Marines and two civilians and caused the evacuation of most of YP-do’s civilian population.  19 homes were destroyed and fires caused by the KPA’s shells destroyed 70% of a forest.

A dog wounded by a North Korean shell that hit the South Korean island of Yeonpyeong earlier this week eats part of a combat ration from a South Korean man on Nov. 27. Most of the residents on the island have evacuated since the artillery attack on Nov. 23. (Yonhap)

On Sunday (28 November) morning explosions originating in North Korea caused YP-do’s remaining population to seek shelter in bunkers, and the ROK’s defense ministry ordered journalists to depart the island.

“At this stage, it is unpredictable what kind of a provocative action North Korea will take using the South Korean-U.S. joint drills as a justification,” the ministry said in a statement. “So we ask journalists on Yeonpyeong Island to leave within today.”

The South’s military “cannot guarantee” the safety of journalists in case of North Korea’s provocation, it said.

A ministry official said all journalists were advised to leave Yeonpyeong. He said a Coast Guard ship would be waiting at around 7:00 p.m. to transport them.

“It’s not an evacuation, but even if some of the journalists stay on the island, they will be banned from reporting,” the official said on the condition of anonymity.

Residents of South Korea's western Yeonpyeong Island bordering North Korea arrive at Incheon port on Nov. 24 after evacuating from the island, which was hit hard by an indiscriminate North Korean attack the day before. The communist country fired hundreds of rounds of artillery at the island and its surrounding areas on Nov. 23, killing two South Korean marines and injuring a score of other soldiers and civilians.

Houses destroyed in North Korean attack on Yeonpyeong Island (Yonhap News)

This photo, taken by a firefighter on South Korea's Yeonpyeong Island, shows some areas engulfed in smoke as North Korea fired about 170 rounds of artillery on the island on Nov. 23. The attack killed at least four South Koreans, including two civilians, and injured more than a dozen others. (Photo courtesy of Incheon Fire Dept.)