ROK Troops Prepare for North Korean Provocation On Western Islands

It looks like the North Koreans could be up to no good again in the western islands:

South Korea’s military is on high alert for possible North Korean military provocations after the communist country increased the amount of weapons and troops on its western islands, government sources said Wednesday.

“North Korea has deployed weapons, surveillance assets and troops to its islands, Galdo and Arido, north of the Northern Limit Line (NLL) in the Yellow Sea,” one government source said, asking not to be named. “Our (South Korean) military is mindful of the possibility of sudden provocations by the North in the region.”

The NLL is a de facto maritime border between the Koreas.

Possible provocations could include shelling attacks on South Korean warships or seizing South Korean fishing boats in the tense border areas, other sources indicated.

In response, the South Korean military has placed its troops on alert and increased its sea border surveillance using unmanned aerial vehicles, including Israel-made Heron drones, the sources said.

They said the North has recently installed military bunkers on the previously uninhabited Galdo and deployed about 60 military forces and six 122-millimeter multiple-launch rocket systems there.

A squad of 20 soldiers has been deployed on Arido, also formerly uninhabited, along with surveillance radar and a camera, according to the sources.  [Yonhap]