South Korea Experiences a Stirring for Revenge

Displaced Yeonpyeong Island residents Saturday at In Spa World, a bathhouse and entertainment center converted into a refugee shelter after North Korea fired artillery shells at the island.

By MARTIN FACKLER
NYT

INCHEON, South Korea — The explosions from North Korean artillery shells sent Hong Kwang-sun and other members of his construction crew rushing into the basement of their half-finished building on Yeonpyeong Island. As he ran, he saw two workers still standing outside just as another round of blasts engulfed the construction site in flames.

The next day, searchers found the bodies of the two men. They were burned beyond recognition.

“We never thought they would attack civilians,” Mr. Hong said Saturday as he and other survivors sat somberly drinking soju, an alcoholic beverage, near a makeshift shrine to the two men in this South Korean port city. “North Korean soldiers have full stomachs from our support, and now they repay us by firing at us. Next time, we should repay them by shooting them back.”

The South did shoot back, but many Koreans consider the limited response feeble compared with the hourlong artillery barrage on Tuesday, in which North Korea rained about 180 shells on the island, killing the civilians and two South Korean marines.

(More here.)