SEOUL, Nov 27 (Reuters) - South Korea's Marine commander today vowed “thousand -fold” retaliation days after a North Korean attack that killed two servicemen as protesters demanded tougher action by the government against its reclusive neighbour.
The two Marines were honoured with a gun salute into the sunny autumn sky as families wailed and grim-faced officials saluted the funeral cortege, days after North Korea rained shells on a tiny island in the heaviest attack on South Korea since the 1950-53 civil war.
“All Marines, including Marines on service and reserve Marines, will avenge the two at any cost, keeping today's anger and hostility in mind,” Lieutenant General Yoo Nak Joon, commander of the South Korean Marine Corps, said, speaking in front of a hearse lightly dusted by snow.
“We will put our feelings of rage and animosity in our bones and take our revenge on North Korea.”
The funeral was followed by three separate anti-North Korea protests in the capital as a US nuclear-powered aircraft carrier headed for joint manoeuvres with South Korea on Sunday, infuriating North Korea and prompting a warning from its only major ally, China.
“It's time for action. Time for retaliation. Let's hit the presidential palace in Pyongyang,” shouted close to 1,000 Marine veterans in downtown Seoul.
President Lee Myung-bak was holding a meeting of security officials, Yonhap news agency said. South Korea's new defence minister called for tougher action against North Korea, local media reported. A Seoul newspaper also reported the government plans to sharply increase defence spending next year.
“We need to deal with North Korea's provocations strongly,” Defence Minister Kim Kwan-jin was quoted as telling presidential aides by the Chosun Ilbo newspaper. “We need to hit back multiple times as hard.”
The Korea Economic Daily said the government had proposed a 5.8 percent increase in the 2011 defence budget to about $27 billion to buy more self-propelled artillery and fighter-bombers, far more than the 3.6 percent rise this year. |
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