Jabar Ekspres – South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol on Thursday commemorated a 1999 naval battle between the two Koreas near the second sea border, vowing to firmly respond to North Korea’s provocations.
“We will unequivocally answer North Korea’s rash provocations,” he wrote on his Facebook page.
“Only our great overwhelming power will bring true peace, not a false peace that leaves us begging to the enemy.”
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Yoon previously called former president of South Korea Moon Jae-in’s administration’s efforts to push for reconciliation with North Korea as begging for peace.
The 1999 battle took place near the Northern Limit Line (NLL), the de facto maritime border in the Yellow Sea, which saw a North Korean warship sunk and nine other vessels heavily damaged.
The South Korean Navy did not lose a single soldier, instead dozens of North Korean soldiers are said to have died in the naval battle.
“Our Navy personnel who went into battle without the slightest hesitation fought the North Korean patrol boats and defended the NLL,” Yoon wrote. “Their burning spirit of patriotism is contagious to their juniors.”
Source: Yonhap-OANA