Article Posted on : - Sep 07, 2011

The Spike NLOS. A Rafael photo

SEOUL (AP): South Korea has struck a USD 43 million deal with an Israeli company to buy advanced rockets to protect a frontline area attacked by North Korea last year, officials said Tuesday.

South Korea will deploy 67 Spike NLOS rockets on Baengnyeong and Yeonpyeong islands in the Yellow Sea as early as late this year, a South Korean government arms procurement official said.

Four South Koreans were killed on Yeonpyeong when the North shelled it last November.

The official, who declined to be identified, citing policy, said the deal was made in July. Another South Korean official confirmed the information.

Israel’s Rafael Advanced Defense Systems says the rockets can fly up to 25 kilometres and hit hidden targets.

South Korea has been struggling to find ways to take out North Korea’s hidden coastal artillery should it attack again.

South Korea’s efforts to boost weapons systems on the frontline islands follow intense criticism that defence officials failed to respond strongly and quickly enough after the North's attack last year.

South Korea currently has self-propelled guns, vulcan cannons, multi-rocket launchers, radars and other advanced weapons deployed on the islands, as well as thousands of marines. In June, Seoul set up a separate defence command in charge of troops on the islands.

Violence often flares in the Yellow Sea, and three deadly naval clashes since 1999 have taken a few dozen lives. The maritime line separating North and South Korea was drawn by the US-led UN Command without North Korea’s consent at the close of the 1950-53 Korean War.

That fighting ended with a truce, not a peace treaty, leaving the peninsula still technically in a state of war.

North Korea routinely argues that the line should run farther south.

South Korea’s moves to bolster its defences come as it seeks to revive dialogue with North Korea. Since July, diplomats from the two Koreas and the United States have met to explore ways to revive long-stalled nuclear disarmament talks. Progress, however, has been elusive.