Article Posted on : - Mar 02, 2011

A file photo.

SEOUL (BNS): South Korea will deploy its 500MD light attack helicopters on islands bordering North Korea, a defence official said Wednesday.

The helicopters will be deployed on islands near the Yellow Sea border with North Korea to bolster South Korea's defence capability there, following the North's deadly artillery attack, the official Yonhap news agency quoted the defence official as saying.

The planned deployment of 500MD helicopters is aimed at countering a possible hovercraft infiltration by the North's special forces into one of the border islands, the official at the South's Joint Chiefs of Staff (JCS) said.

The country, in Jaunary this year, had deployed more anti-submarine patrol aircraft to guard against any potential attack by North Korea.

The five P-3CK surveillance aircraft in addition to 11 anti-submarine planes already in operation to patrol the sea off the west and east coasts were deployed to monitor movements of the North's submarines in the East Sea and Yellow Sea.

The move had come after the South accused the North of torpedoing its warship in March 2010 near the disputed Yellow Sea border.