- File : South Korean President Lee Myung-bak receives a briefing at the control centre of the South Korean Joint Chiefs of Staff at the Defence Ministry in Seoul November 23, 2010. North Korea on Tuesday fired dozens of artillery shells at a South Korean island, setting buildings on fire and prompting a return of fire by the South, Seoul's military and media reports said. (Getty Images / REUTERS/Jo Bo-Hee/Yonhap )
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SEOUL, Nov. 27 (KATAKAMI / Yonhap) -- South Korean President Lee Myung-bak was presiding over a security-related meeting on Saturday to check follow-up measures after North Korea fired a barrage of shots on a South Korean island earlier this week, officials said.
The meeting also comes one day before the U.S. and South Korea are set to begin military exercises in the Yellow Sea in a show of force that North Korea warned will take the peninsula to the "brink of war."
Lee was discussing measures to counter another possible North Korean attack and studying ways to levy sanctions on the communist state, according to the officials.
On Tuesday, North Korea fired artillery on Yeonpyeong Island, a populated island in the Yellow Sea, killing four people, including two civilians.
The North Korea's attack marked the first civilian deaths in an attack since the bombing of a South Korean airliner in 1987.
South Korea and the U.S. were set to launch large-scale naval exercises Sunday in another potent show of force against North Korea.
The nuclear-powered USS George Washington, with more than 6,000 sailors and 75 fighter jets aboard, prepared for the naval drills with South Korea in the Yellow Sea. The drills are set to run through Wednesday, and about 10 warships have been mobilized for the exercises. (*)
