S.Korea’s Lee calls meeting on economy after North attack

INCHEON, South Korea, (Reuters) – South Korean   President Lee Myung-bak called an emergency meeting yesterday to contain the economic impact of an artillery attack   by North Korea while the United States asked China to rein in   Pyongyang.

Local media said the meeting of senior security and   economic officials in Seoul would discuss ways to prevent   tensions with North Korea from hurting Asia’s fourth-biggest   economy, which is becoming more reliant on domestic consumer   spending for growth as exports begin to lose steam.

In the United States, Admiral Mike Mullen, chairman of the   Joint Chiefs of Staff, said Washington was working with allies   on ways to respond to the attack, adding: “It’s very important   for China to lead.”

“The one country that has influence in Pyongyang is China   and so their leadership is absolutely critical,” Mullen told a   U.S. television talk show.

North Korea rained artillery shells on Tuesday at the   island of Yeonpyeong, south of the disputed maritime boundary   with the South. Two villagers were among the four killed, the   first time civilians have died in an attack by the North since   1987.
The civilian deaths have added to the anger in the South.

“The biggest task of South Korea is to contain (North   Korea’s) Kim dynasty so that they cannot cause a national,   ethnic tragedy again,” the influential Chosun Ilbo daily said   on Thursday.
“But South Korea failed to fulfill the task again this   time.”
The newspaper also said China, reclusive North Korea’s   only major ally, must take a more pro-active
stance in   containing Pyongyang.

“If China does not put public pressure on North Korea,   provocations by North Korea will continue. If the Korean   peninsula is in flames, Chinese prosperity will shake from the   bottom.”

Global markets have recovered from Tuesday’s attack, and   the stock market opened up in Seoul on Thursday and looked   likely to head back to pre-attack levels. However, the won   currency remained under pressure due to lingering caution.

The United States has dispatched an aircraft carrier group   headed by the USS George Washington to the Yellow Sea off the   Korean peninsula to take part in joint drills with South Korea.

Although the U.S. Forces Korea said the exercise had been   planned well before the attack, many thought the move would   enrage the North and unsettle China.

Beijing has said previously that it sees any joint   U.S.-South Korea exercises in the waters between the Korean   peninsula and China as a threat to its security and to   regional stability.

CHINA’S ROLE KEY

China has long propped up the Pyongyang leadership,   worried that a collapse of the North could bring instability   to its own borders. Beijing is and also wary of a unified   Korea that would be dominated by the United States, the key   ally of the South.