S. Korea to install artillery-tracking radar near Yellow Sea border

Yonhap News ^ | 1/29/2010 | Yonhap News

[ErnstStavroBlofeld]

South Korea's military is considering positioning a weapon-locating radar system on islands near the Yellow Sea border, in a bid to better monitor artillery firing by North Korea, a lawmaker who was briefed on the plan said Friday. In a meeting with lawmakers of the National Assembly defense committee, Defense Minister Kim Tae-young said that the military will push to deploy artillery hunting radars, called TPQ, on Baengnyeong Island and Yeonpyeong Island just south of the western inter-Korean sea border, Rep. Kim Hak-song who chairs the committee said.The radar system is capable of detecting hostile artillery by tracking projectiles in flight and locating launching and landing points. In the past, South Korea had temporarily deployed the radar system to the western sea border region when tensions rose, but the latest plan seeks a permanent dispatch.

"When inter-Korean tensions flared near Yeonpyeong Island in the past, a TPQ was deployed and later withdrawn, but the ministry told us that it has decided to consider a permanent deployment," the lawmaker of the ruling Grand National Party told reporters. Tensions spiked across the western sea border after North Korea fired hundreds of artillery shells into its own waters near the borderline over three days this week despite warning shots from the South. North Korea said the firing was part of a regular exercise and vowed to continue it.