South Korea naval forces to more than double anti-sub drills 2011.

SEOUL, January 7 (Itar-Tass) -- The South Korean naval forces will
increase the number of anti-submarine military exercises this year in
order to make the combat readiness higher in case of new acts of military
sabotage from North Korea. "We will more than double the number of
anti-submarine exercises this year and these drills will be very close to
real combat conditions," South Korea's Navy Chief of Staff Admiral Kim
Sung-Chan said on Friday.
This measure is caused by the need for a higher combat capability of
the naval forces for a powerful retaliatory strike in case of new acts of
military sabotage from North Korea, he noted. The joint naval exercises
with the U.S. naval forces will also increase in number this year.
The South Korean admiral noted that this year South Korean naval
forces had already deployed additional anti-submarine airplanes that are
to detect the manoeuvres of North Korean submarines. "Meanwhile, we are
training naval commanders and sailors for a powerful retaliatory strike in
case of any provocations from the enemy," Kim Sung-Chan pointed out.
The tensions mounted sharply on the Korean Peninsula after North Korea'
s shelling of the Yeonpyeong Island on November 23, 2010, when two marines
and two civilians were killed. Meanwhile, the South Korean corvette
Cheonan with 46 naval sailors aboard sank as a result of a strong blast in
the Yellow Sea on March 23, 2010.
The South Korean investigation committee, which included the experts
from Australia, Great Britain, the United States and Sweden, came to
conclusion that the Cheonan corvette sank due to a torpedo strike from a
North Korean small submarine. North Korea rejected strongly the
participation of the country in this armed incident and called it a
provocation staged by Seoul and Washington.
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