http://www.spacedaily.com/reports/Satellite_images_show_SKorean_shelling_inef...



NUKEWARS
Satellite images show S.Korean shelling ineffective

by Staff Writers
Seoul (AFP) Dec 2, 2010
Claims by Seoul's military that its counter-fire hit North Korea hard after the North shelled a South Korean border island were called into question by satellite images published Thursday.

Military officials, trying to deflect charges they responded feebly to the deadly November 23 attack on Yeonpyeong island, have said their return fire was believed to have caused considerable damage.

But senior ruling party legislator Kim Moo-Sung said Thursday that the North's artillery positions apparently escaped unscathed.

The North fired up to 170 shells of which 80 hit the island, killing two civilians and two marines and wounding 18 other people.

It was the first time that a civilian area in the South had been shelled since the 1950-1953 war. The attack also damaged military facilities, destroyed 29 homes and set hillsides and fields ablaze.

South Korea in response fired 80 rounds from its much-touted indigenous K-9 self-propelled guns.

But Kim, citing satellite images published by global intelligence company Stratfor, told a ruling party meeting that 35 of them landed in the sea while 45 others reached North Korean land.

Of those which hit the mainland, only 14 got relatively close to the North's artillery positions.

"(When South Koreans fired back) North Korean artillery guns had already slid back into tunnels and even a single shell did not reach the target," Kim was quoted as saying by Yonhap news agency.

"The 14 shots appeared to have landed here and there on rice paddies."

Kim called on National Intelligence Service director Won Sei-Hoon to carry out a thorough investigation. "I hope this case will serve as an opportunity to reform the military," he said.

The defence minister is resigning to take responsibility for the widely criticised response.

The South is sending multiple rocket launchers and more guns, along with extra troops, to Yeonpyeong island and to four other frontline islands near the disputed sea border.