By Lee Tae-hoon
The Ministry of National Defense has decided to turn five islands near the disputed maritime border with North Korea in the West Sea into "military fortresses" by 2015, an official said Tuesday.
He added that the military will create a West Sea Command by as early as the end of the year and plans to install heavy weaponry on the five islands by 2012.
The list of combat equipment includes K9 self-propelled howitzers, 227-mm multiple launch rocket systems, Cheonma surface-to-air missiles, ARTHUR artillery-hunting radar and GPS-guided “Spike” missiles.
The military has sought to beef up the defense capabilities of the five islands, following North Korea’s deadly artillery attack on Yeonpyeong Island last year,
The North’s surprise shelling on Nov. 23 devastated the small fishing village of Yeonpyeong, killing four people, including two civilians.
The new measures are aimed at bolstering security on the islands and increasing the chance of repressing North Korean landing operations.
The military is also planning to bolster its antiaircraft defense capacities and ability to immediately launch counterstrikes from the islands against the North in the event of an emergency.
Tensions remain high near the Northern Limit Line (NLL), the de facto sea border, the scene of several bloody conflicts in recent years.
The North does not respect the NLL, claiming that it was drawn unilaterally by the U.S.-led United Nations Command at the end of the 1950-53 Korean War and that it should be redrawn further south.
The two Koreas remains technically at war after the Korean War ended in a truce, not a peace treaty.
