South Korea’s defence chief called Friday for tight vigilance against North Korea, saying Pyongyang was preparing for a new infiltration exercise near the disputed Yellow Sea border.
“As the ice melts, North Korea is preparing to resume a seaborne infiltration drill,” Defence Minister Kim Kwan-Jin told a parliamentary session.
He did not elaborate on the drill but said “surprise provocations using new means and methods are always possible”.
The South’s military is deploying light attack helicopters on five border islands to counter any hovercraft infiltration by special forces, the ministry said in a report to parliament.
Media reports last month said the North was building a new hovercraft base that would allow it to launch a quick invasion of the islands.
Kim said US and South Korean troops would maintain close watch on the North’s military activities even after they complete their current major joint exercise.
The allies launched the annual Key Resolve/Foal Eagle drills on February 28, some three months after the North’s deadly shelling of one of the five frontline islands.
They completed computerised war games on Thursday, but field training involving a US aircraft carrier will continue through next month.
The two exercises, denounced by North Korea as a rehearsal for invasion, involve a total of 12,300 US troops and some 200,000 South Korean service members including reservists.
Kim said the North had tried to disrupt the war games by beaming signals intended to jam military communications which use Global Positioning Systems.
The jamming, which began last Friday, apparently failed. Kim said the North is believed to have a number of sets of jamming equipment mounted on vehicles.
The North’s artillery attack in November, which killed two marines and two civilians, prompted South Korea to strengthen island defences.
The South also accuses its neighbour of torpedoing a warship near the border in March 2010 with the loss of 46 lives, a charge Pyongyang denies.
