SOUTH KOREA—A US aircraft carrier group set off for Korean waters on mWednesday, a day after North Korea rained artillery shells on a South Korean island, in a move likely to enrage Pyongyang and unsettle its ally, China. South Korea said the bodies of two civilians were found on the island after Tuesday's attack, which is likely to stir up more resentment in the country against its prickly neighbour. The nuclear-powered USS George Washington, which carries 75 warplanes and has a crew of over 6,000, left a naval base south of Tokyo and would join exercises with South Korea from Sunday to the following Wednesday, US officials in Seoul said. “This exercise is defensive in nature,” US Forces Korea said in a statement. “While planned well before yesterday's unprovoked artillery attack, it demonstrates the strength of the ROK (South Korea)-US alliance and our commitment to regional stability through deterrence.” North Korea said the South was driving the peninsula to the “brink of war” with “reckless military provocation” and by postponing humanitarian aid, the North's official KCNA news agency said. The dispatch did not refer to the planned military drills. The government in Seoul came under pressure for the military's slow response to the provocation, echoing similar complaints made when a warship was sunk in March in the same area, killing 46 sailors. Defence Minister Kim Tae-young was grilled by lawmakers who said the government should have taken quicker and stronger retaliatory measures against the North's provocation. “I am sorry that the government has not carried out ruthless bombing through jet fighters during the North's second round of shelling,” said Kim Jang-soo, a lawmaker of ruling Grand National Party and a former defence minister. Tuesday's attack was the heaviest in the region since the Korean War ended in 1953, and marked the first civilian deaths in an assault since the bombing of a South Korean airliner in 1987. The United States and Japan urged China to do more to rein in North Korea after the reclusive nation fired scores of artillery shells on Tuesday at a South Korean island near the maritime boundary between the two sides.
