S.Korea's Lee says N.Korea must pay for attack

South Korean President Lee Myung-Bak on Monday vowed to make North Korea "pay the price" for its "inhumane" artillery attack on a frontline island that killed four people and sparked global outrage.Lee has come under pressure to take a tougher line against Pyongyang after his military's counter-fire following North Korea's deadly artillery strike on a border island last week was seen as feeble."I can't help expressing anger at the North Korean regime's brutality," he said in a nationally televised address.

South Korean President Lee Myung-Bak Monday reached out to North Korea, saying Seoul was open to talks and offering closer economic ties despite high tensions on the peninsula.In his New Year policy address, just days after Pyongyang called for improved relations in 2011, Lee also urged the North to abandon its "military adventurism."Relations between the two Koreas plunged after the North shelled a border island in November, killing four people, including two civilians.

South Korean President Lee Myung-Bak Monday reached out to North Korea, saying Seoul was open to talks and offering closer economic ties despite high tensions on the peninsula.In his New Year policy address, just days after Pyongyang called for improved relations in 2011, Lee also urged the North to abandon its "military adventurism."Relations between the two Koreas plunged after the North shelled a border island in November, killing four people, including two civilians.

South Korean President Lee Myung-Bak on Monday reached out to North Korea, saying Seoul was open to talks and offering closer economic ties despite high tensions on the peninsula.In his New Year policy address, just days after Pyongyang called for improved relations in 2011, Lee also urged the North to abandon its "military adventurism."Relations between the two Koreas plunged after the North shelled a border island in November, killing four people, including two civilians.

ETF Database submits: South Korea is home to one of the world’s most unique and promising economies, thriving off of its status as a tech leader as well as proximity and strong relationships with many of Asia’s rapidly-expanding emerging markets. But constantly looming over South Korea is the unstable relationship with its neighbor to the north, one of the world’s most closed and volatile regimes in North Korea.

North Korea has been placed under martial law and Kim Jong-un has told his front-line troops to "be ready for a war," according to South Korean media reports. In an emergency meeting of his top defence and security officials on Saturday, the North Korean leader issued a series of orders that included the conclusion of preparations for a new nuclear test, the Joongang Daily reported.

The United States and South Korea Sunday mounted a major show of naval strength to deter North Korea following its deadly shelling attack, despite Pyongyang's warning of unpredictable consequences.The four-day exercise involving around a dozen warships including a US aircraft carrier began at 8:00 am (2300 GMT Saturday), Seoul's Joint Chiefs of Staff (JCS) said.It started five days after the North stunned the world by launching a barrage of shells and rockets at a South Korean border island, killing two marines and two civilians and setting homes and forests ablaze.

The troubled economy of North Korea (DPRK) may be the first casualty of further escalation. Despite plenty of wartime bluster coming out of Pyongyang about the so-called "puppet government" of the South, DPRK actually relies on its neighbor for a huge source of income.