By DAILY MAIL REPORTER
Last updated at 5:48 PM on 28th November 2010
North Korea has risked sparking more anger after that the deaths of two Marines who were killed in a shell attack was regrettable and blamed South Korea for using the men as a 'human shield'.
The two troops were killed when North Korea rained shells on a tiny island in the heaviest attack on South Korea since the 1950-53 civil war.
North Korea's comments came as its rival's Marine commander today vowed 'thousand-fold' revenge on the country for the attacks.
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Lieutenant General Yoo Nak-Joon salutes during the funeral ceremony for two marines. 'All Marines, including Marines on service and reserve Marines, will avenge the two at any cost, keeping today's anger and hostility in mind,' he said
South Korean marines carry the flag-draped caskets of their comrades at the funeral
The two Marines were honoured with a gun salute as families wailed and grim-faced officials saluted the funeral cortege.
'All Marines, including Marines on service and reserve Marines, will avenge the two at any cost, keeping today's anger and hostility in mind,' said Lieutenant General Yoo Nak Joon, commander of the South Korean Marine Corps standing in front of a hearse lightly dusted by snow.
'We will put our feelings of rage and animosity in our bones and take our revenge on North Korea.'
Two Marines and two civilians were killed in the attack. The funeral was followed by three separate anti-North Korea protests in the capital as a U.S. nuclear-powered aircraft carrier headed for joint manoeuvres with South Korea on Sunday, infuriating North Korea and prompting a warning from its only major ally, China.
'It's time for action. Time for retaliation. Let's hit the presidential palace in Pyongyang,' shouted close to 1,000 Marine veterans in downtown Seoul who burnt photographs of North Korean leader Kim Jong-il and his anointed successor, son Kim Jung-un.
North Korean reacted to it's neighbour's comments on the eve of the US-South Korean in the yellow sea that have enraged the North and worried China by issuing a statement through its state-controlled news agency.
Clutching her face, the mother marine Moon Kwang-wook weeps at the funeral
Retired South Korean Marines burn a North Korean flag and portraits of the country's leader Kim Jong-il and his son Kim Jong-un
North Korea's state news agency said that although 'it is very regrettable, if it is true, that civilian casualties occurred on Yeonpyeong island, its responsibility lies in enemies' inhumane action of creating a 'human shield' by deploying civilians around artillery positions.'
The North said its enemies are 'now working hard to dramatise 'civilian casualties' as part of its propaganda campaign, creating the impression that the defenceless civilians were exposed to 'indiscriminate shelling' all of a sudden from the North'.
South Korea is said to have been conducting artillery drills on Tuesday from the island, located just seven miles from North Korea's mainland, but fired away from the mainland.
The North said it warned South Korea to halt the drills on the morning of the attack, as part of 'superhuman efforts to prevent the clash to the last moment'.
The North said that Sunday's planned US-South Korean war games showed that the United States was 'the arch criminal who deliberately planned the incident and wire-pulled it behind the scene'.
As protesters in Seoul demanded their government take sterner action against North Korea, the North issued new warnings against the war games scheduled to start tomorrow with a US nuclear-powered aircraft carrier in the Yellow Sea.
The North called the games an 'unpardonable provocation' and warned of retaliatory attacks creating a "sea of fire" if its own territory is violated. The comments ran on North Korea's state-run Uriminzokkiri website a day after the North's warnings that the peninsula was on the 'brink of war'.
Elsewhere, members of the 'Underwater-Demolition Team', practised in sabotage, protested against North Korea and against the government for ignoring their sacrifices on spy missions. Scuffles broke out and police used fire-extinguishers to break up the crowd.
President Lee Myung-bak held a meeting of security officials, Yonhap news agency said. South Korea's new defence minister called for tougher action, local media reported. A Seoul newspaper also reported the government plans to sharply increase defence spending next year.
'We need to deal with North Korea's provocations strongly,' Defence Minister Kim Kwan-jin was quoted as telling presidential aides by the Chosun Ilbo newspaper. 'We need to hit back multiple times as hard.'
Lawmakers have blasted President Lee Myung-bak's government for not responding strongly enough. The defence minister resigned, taking responsibility, and Kim, a career soldier, was appointed in his place.
Regional giant China has said it is determined to prevent an escalation of the violence but warned against military acts near its coast as U.S. and South Korean forces prepare for exercises in the Yellow Sea.
A North Korean website operated by the government propaganda agency said the war drills were 'another unforgivable military provocation'.
'(The North) will make the stronghold of the enemy a sheet of flames if they violate its territory even by 0.01 mm.'
The U.S. military said the exercises, planned long before Tuesday's attack, were designed to deter North Korea and were not aimed at China.
The United States is sending an aircraft carrier group led by the nuclear-powered USS George Washington for the manoeuvres with South Korea.
'We've routinely operated in waters off the Korean peninsula for years,' said Captain Darryn James, a Pentagon spokesman. 'These latest provocations have been by the North and they need to take ownership of those, not us.'
U.S. Admiral Mike Mullen, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, said North Korea's nuclear ambitions and leader Kim Jong-il's unpredictability increased the threat of regional instability.
'It's hard to know why China doesn't push harder,' Mullen told CNN television's Fareed Zakaria GPS in comments due to air on Sunday. "My sense is they try to control this guy. And I'm not sure he is controllable.'
Calling for calm after the attack, Chinese Foreign Minister Yang Jiechi met North Korean ambassador Ji Jae Ryong in Beijing and talked by phone with U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and South Korean Foreign Minister Kim Sung-hwan.
'The top priority now is to keep the situation under control and to ensure such events do not happen again,' the Chinese Foreign Ministry said in a statement.
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