HARARE (AFP) – Zimbabwe's prime minister has asked the high court to revoke President Robert Mugabe's appointment of provincial governors, court papers said Thursday.
"In my humble view, submission and plea, all of this is plain, clear and simple. Wherever the Constitution obliges the President to act ?in consultation? with me as Prime Minister, he must first secure my agreement," Morgan Tsvangirai said.
"In this instance, the first respondent (Mugabe) did not even consult me on the names appointed. The first respondent is aware of his constitutional obligations. He is aware that he cannot appoint provincial governors without my agreement," Tsvangirai said in the court papers seen by AFP.
A source at Tsvangirai's Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) party confirmed that the prime minister had filed the lawsuit on Wednesday, a move likely to strain the shaky power-sharing government even more.
Tsvangirai formed a government with Mugabe last year to ease tensions in the aftermath of a bloody presidential election and mend an economy ravaged by a nearly decade-long economic crisis.
The work of the government has been hamstrung by haggling over the allocation of top government posts.
The lawsuit came as mediator Jacob Zuma, the South African president, was expected in Harare on Friday to attend to differences threatening the compromise government.
Presidential spokesman and Mugabe's ZANU-PF party officials were not available for comment
Friday, November 26, 2010
Nigeria charges Iranian, 3 others in arms seizure
ABUJA, Nigeria – A Nigerian court on Thursday charged an Iranian and three Nigerians for arms trafficking in connection to an arms shipment officials seized last month at Nigeria's busiest port.
The Magistrate Court in Abuja said it had charged Iranian national Azeem Aghajani for attempting to import prohibited arms into Nigeria with the intent of sending them to nearby Gambia.
The court also charged three Nigerians, Ali Usman Abass Jega, Aliu Oroji Wamakko and Mohammed Tukur in connection to the seizure.
Aghajani said he needed his embassy to represent him before he could present his plea. The three Nigerians pleaded not guilty, but only one of them was represented in court.
The Nigerian's lawyer argued for bail, but the prosecutor contested the request.
"This is a matter of great national importance, and if I may add, it has international implications," said prosecutor Matthew Idakwo. "These arms were imported from Iran to our country. It is of great interest to the world. In fact, the United Nations has interest in this matter."
Nigeria reported Iran to the United Nations after Nigerian security officials in October seized a hidden shipment of military-grade arms that originated in Iran and passed through Nigeria's busiest port in Lagos.
Artillery rockets and other weapons, loaded in 13 shipping containers that were labeled as building supplies, were seized Oct. 26.
Magistrate Judge Hafsat Soso said the four men would remain in the custody of Nigeria's State Security Service as investigations continued.
The Magistrate Court in Abuja said it had charged Iranian national Azeem Aghajani for attempting to import prohibited arms into Nigeria with the intent of sending them to nearby Gambia.
The court also charged three Nigerians, Ali Usman Abass Jega, Aliu Oroji Wamakko and Mohammed Tukur in connection to the seizure.
Aghajani said he needed his embassy to represent him before he could present his plea. The three Nigerians pleaded not guilty, but only one of them was represented in court.
The Nigerian's lawyer argued for bail, but the prosecutor contested the request.
"This is a matter of great national importance, and if I may add, it has international implications," said prosecutor Matthew Idakwo. "These arms were imported from Iran to our country. It is of great interest to the world. In fact, the United Nations has interest in this matter."
Nigeria reported Iran to the United Nations after Nigerian security officials in October seized a hidden shipment of military-grade arms that originated in Iran and passed through Nigeria's busiest port in Lagos.
Artillery rockets and other weapons, loaded in 13 shipping containers that were labeled as building supplies, were seized Oct. 26.
Magistrate Judge Hafsat Soso said the four men would remain in the custody of Nigeria's State Security Service as investigations continued.
Russia opens key plant to destroy chemical weapons
POCHEP, Russia – Russia will miss a 2012 deadline for destroying all of its chemical weapons, officials said Friday as they inaugurated a major new plant to dispose of them.
The facility at Pochep, in the western Bryansk region, is the latest of several plants built in Russia in recent years to dismantle its Cold War-era chemical weapons arsenals — the world's largest.
As a signatory of the international Chemical Weapons Convention, the country already has destroyed about half of its chemical weapons, according to Russian officials.
It is facing an April 2012 deadline for destroying all its chemical weapons, but Viktor Kholstov, the Russian Ministry of Industry and Trade's official in charge of chemical disarmament, said Friday the nation will need two or three more years.
He said the delay had been caused by a shortage of funds in the last two years.
The Russian Foreign Ministry issued a similar warning in August, saying that, because of the global financial crisis, Russia had run into "financial and technical difficulties" that would stretch the time required for completing the disposal of chemical weapons stockpiles by up to three years.
The United States has acknowledged it will miss the deadline, too. Assistant Secretary of State Rose Gottemoeller said at the United Nations last month that the U.S. had destroyed 78 percent of the chemical weapons stockpiles and is on pace to destroy 90 percent of its arsenal destroyed by April 2012.
Pochep is home to a stockpile of 7,500 tons of nerve agent — nearly 19 percent of the chemical weapons Russia is committed to destroy. Col.-Gen. Valery Kapashin, a military official in charge of storage and elimination of Russia's chemical stockpiles, said Pochep is expected to destroy its stock of chemical weapons by the end of 2014.
The facility at Pochep, in the western Bryansk region, is the latest of several plants built in Russia in recent years to dismantle its Cold War-era chemical weapons arsenals — the world's largest.
As a signatory of the international Chemical Weapons Convention, the country already has destroyed about half of its chemical weapons, according to Russian officials.
It is facing an April 2012 deadline for destroying all its chemical weapons, but Viktor Kholstov, the Russian Ministry of Industry and Trade's official in charge of chemical disarmament, said Friday the nation will need two or three more years.
He said the delay had been caused by a shortage of funds in the last two years.
The Russian Foreign Ministry issued a similar warning in August, saying that, because of the global financial crisis, Russia had run into "financial and technical difficulties" that would stretch the time required for completing the disposal of chemical weapons stockpiles by up to three years.
The United States has acknowledged it will miss the deadline, too. Assistant Secretary of State Rose Gottemoeller said at the United Nations last month that the U.S. had destroyed 78 percent of the chemical weapons stockpiles and is on pace to destroy 90 percent of its arsenal destroyed by April 2012.
Pochep is home to a stockpile of 7,500 tons of nerve agent — nearly 19 percent of the chemical weapons Russia is committed to destroy. Col.-Gen. Valery Kapashin, a military official in charge of storage and elimination of Russia's chemical stockpiles, said Pochep is expected to destroy its stock of chemical weapons by the end of 2014.
Saudi Arabia arrests 149 suspected of Qaeda links
RIYADH (Reuters) – Saudi Arabia arrested 149 people from 19 cells linked to al Qaeda over the past 8 months and foiled attacks against government and security officials as well as journalists, the Interior Ministry said on Friday.
It said in a statement it had confiscated 2.24 million riyals ($597,237) from al Qaeda when it tried to collect money and spread its ideology during the Muslim pilgrimages of Haj and Umra in Saudi Arabia.
"In the past eight months 149 people linked to al Qaeda were arrested, among them were 124 Saudis and 25 were from other nationalities," Mansour Turki told journalists at a news conference.
He said the attackers were also planning to target government facilities but did not say whether they included oil installations.
Al Qaeda's Yemeni and Saudi wings merged in 2009 into a new group, Al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP), based in Yemen. A Saudi counter-terrorism drive halted an armed campaign in Saudi Arabia by al Qaeda from 2003 to 2006.
The arrests announced on Friday follow one of the largest al Qaeda sweeps in years by Saudi Arabia earlier this year. In March, the kingdom arrested 113 al Qaeda militants including suicide bombers who had been planning attacks on energy facilities in the world's top oil exporter.
The March arrests netted 58 suspected Saudi militants and 52 from Yemen. The militants, who also came from Bangladesh, Eritrea and Somalia, were backed by the Yemen-based AQAP.
It said in a statement it had confiscated 2.24 million riyals ($597,237) from al Qaeda when it tried to collect money and spread its ideology during the Muslim pilgrimages of Haj and Umra in Saudi Arabia.
"In the past eight months 149 people linked to al Qaeda were arrested, among them were 124 Saudis and 25 were from other nationalities," Mansour Turki told journalists at a news conference.
He said the attackers were also planning to target government facilities but did not say whether they included oil installations.
Al Qaeda's Yemeni and Saudi wings merged in 2009 into a new group, Al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP), based in Yemen. A Saudi counter-terrorism drive halted an armed campaign in Saudi Arabia by al Qaeda from 2003 to 2006.
The arrests announced on Friday follow one of the largest al Qaeda sweeps in years by Saudi Arabia earlier this year. In March, the kingdom arrested 113 al Qaeda militants including suicide bombers who had been planning attacks on energy facilities in the world's top oil exporter.
The March arrests netted 58 suspected Saudi militants and 52 from Yemen. The militants, who also came from Bangladesh, Eritrea and Somalia, were backed by the Yemen-based AQAP.
China issues warning ahead of U.S.-South Korea drills
SEOUL (Reuters) – China warned on Friday against military acts near its coastline ahead of U.S.-South Korean naval exercises that North Korea, days after shelling a South Korean island, said risked pushing the region toward war.
Beijing's warning came as the Seoul government named a career soldier as its new defense minister amid mounting criticism of the response to Tuesday's attack by North Korea, its heaviest bombardment since the 1950-53 Korean War.
North Korean artillery shells rained down on the small South Korean island of Yeonpyeong on Tuesday, killing four people and destroying dozens of houses.
"The situation on the Korean peninsula is inching closer to the brink of war due to the reckless plan of those trigger-happy elements to stage again war exercises targeted against the (North)," the North's official KCNA news agency said.
The aggressive language is typical of North Korean state-owned media, but the heightened tension was enough to depress the won as much as 2.2 percent. The stock market closed 1.3 percent down, in line with the wider region.
The United States is sending in an aircraft carrier group led by the nuclear-powered USS George Washington to the Yellow Sea for military exercises with South Korea starting on Sunday.
Planned before this week's attack, the four-day maneuvers are a show of strength which, besides enraging North Korea, have unsettled China, its neighbor and only real ally.
"We oppose any military act by any party conducted in China's exclusive economic zone without approval," China's Foreign Ministry said in an online response to a question regarding China's position on the George Washington participating in joint naval exercises.
The exclusive economic zone is a maritime zone up to 200 nautical miles from a country's coast.
Washington is pressing China to use its influence to rein in Pyongyang to help ease tension in the world's fastest-growing economic region.
GOVERNMENT CRITICISED
South Korea's presidential Blue House appointed Kim Kwan-jin, 61, former chairman of the joint chiefs of staff, to replace Kim Tae-young, who had tried to resign the defense portfolio in May following criticism of the government's response to a torpedo attack on a South Korean warship blamed on the North.
"(We) think nominee Kim, well-respected for professionalism and conviction, is the right person for the post in order to restore trust from people and boost morale in the entire military," presidential secretary Hong Sang-pyo told a news briefing.
There was brief panic in the capital Seoul in the afternoon when television reported sounds of artillery fire near Yeonpyeong. But the military said the artillery fire was distant and no shells landed in South Korea.
"Investors are growing more jittery ahead of the joint military exercise," said Kim Hyoung-ryoul, a market analyst at NH Investment & Securities. "The key concern is, whether North Korea will again take unforeseen, rash actions."
Reclusive and unpredictable North Korea has defied international efforts to halt its nuclear ambitions. But Tuesday's artillery barrage was a major ramping-up of tension between to two Koreas, who remain technically still at war.
South Korean troops fired back 13 minutes later, causing unknown damage. Members of Lee's own party and opposition lawmakers accused the military of responding too slowly.
Hundreds of former South Korean soldiers held a protest rally in the border town of Paju on Friday, accusing the government of being too weak. A small anti-North Korea protest was held in Seoul.
"The lazy government's policies toward North Korea are too soft," said Kim Byeong-su, president of the association of ex-marines, in Paju. "It needs to take revenge on a bunch of mad dogs."
Beijing's warning came as the Seoul government named a career soldier as its new defense minister amid mounting criticism of the response to Tuesday's attack by North Korea, its heaviest bombardment since the 1950-53 Korean War.
North Korean artillery shells rained down on the small South Korean island of Yeonpyeong on Tuesday, killing four people and destroying dozens of houses.
"The situation on the Korean peninsula is inching closer to the brink of war due to the reckless plan of those trigger-happy elements to stage again war exercises targeted against the (North)," the North's official KCNA news agency said.
The aggressive language is typical of North Korean state-owned media, but the heightened tension was enough to depress the won as much as 2.2 percent. The stock market closed 1.3 percent down, in line with the wider region.
The United States is sending in an aircraft carrier group led by the nuclear-powered USS George Washington to the Yellow Sea for military exercises with South Korea starting on Sunday.
Planned before this week's attack, the four-day maneuvers are a show of strength which, besides enraging North Korea, have unsettled China, its neighbor and only real ally.
"We oppose any military act by any party conducted in China's exclusive economic zone without approval," China's Foreign Ministry said in an online response to a question regarding China's position on the George Washington participating in joint naval exercises.
The exclusive economic zone is a maritime zone up to 200 nautical miles from a country's coast.
Washington is pressing China to use its influence to rein in Pyongyang to help ease tension in the world's fastest-growing economic region.
GOVERNMENT CRITICISED
South Korea's presidential Blue House appointed Kim Kwan-jin, 61, former chairman of the joint chiefs of staff, to replace Kim Tae-young, who had tried to resign the defense portfolio in May following criticism of the government's response to a torpedo attack on a South Korean warship blamed on the North.
"(We) think nominee Kim, well-respected for professionalism and conviction, is the right person for the post in order to restore trust from people and boost morale in the entire military," presidential secretary Hong Sang-pyo told a news briefing.
There was brief panic in the capital Seoul in the afternoon when television reported sounds of artillery fire near Yeonpyeong. But the military said the artillery fire was distant and no shells landed in South Korea.
"Investors are growing more jittery ahead of the joint military exercise," said Kim Hyoung-ryoul, a market analyst at NH Investment & Securities. "The key concern is, whether North Korea will again take unforeseen, rash actions."
Reclusive and unpredictable North Korea has defied international efforts to halt its nuclear ambitions. But Tuesday's artillery barrage was a major ramping-up of tension between to two Koreas, who remain technically still at war.
South Korean troops fired back 13 minutes later, causing unknown damage. Members of Lee's own party and opposition lawmakers accused the military of responding too slowly.
Hundreds of former South Korean soldiers held a protest rally in the border town of Paju on Friday, accusing the government of being too weak. A small anti-North Korea protest was held in Seoul.
"The lazy government's policies toward North Korea are too soft," said Kim Byeong-su, president of the association of ex-marines, in Paju. "It needs to take revenge on a bunch of mad dogs."
Wednesday, November 24, 2010
New Zealand mine: 'No survivors' after second blast
All 29 miners trapped in a New Zealand coal pit since Friday are believed to be dead after a second explosion.
Police Supt Gary Knowles said there was no hope that anyone could have survived the "massive" underground blast at the Pike River mine on South Island.
Prime Minister John Key said the loss of life was a national tragedy.
There had been no contact with the men - 24 New Zealanders, two Australians, two Britons and a South African - since the first explosion on Friday.
The Britons were Peter Roger, 40, and Malcolm Campbell, 25, who were both originally from Scotland.
The mayor of Greymouth, the town nearest the mine, said the miners' families were in "absolute despair" after hearing of the news.
'Still hoping'
Supt Knowles, who was leading the rescue operation, said there had been another explosion at 1437 local time (0137 GMT) inside the mine
"It is our belief that no-one has survived and everyone will have perished," he told reporters.
"I was at the mine myself when this actually occurred and the blast was horrific, just as severe as the first blast and we're currently now moving into recovery phase,"
"This is one of the most tragic things I have had to do as a police officer."
Rescuers had been preparing to go into the mine on Wednesday, but information suggested the levels of methane gas were too high.
Shortly afterwards, the second explosion happened. It was larger and stronger than Friday's blast, and lasted about 30 seconds, officials said.
The chief executive of Pike River Coal, Peter Whittall, said it would make every effort to retrieve the bodies of the men.
"We want our boys back and we want to get them out," he told reporters.
Mr Whittall said the families were ''absolutely devastated by the news".
''They had all held out hope that their son, their brother would be the lucky one,'' he said, before adding with tears welling up in his eyes: "I'm unlikely to see my workmates again".
Family members wept, shouted and fell to the floor after hearing the news, Grey District mayor Tony Kokshoorn said.
"People shouted out in anger, they are sickened by the whole thing. A lot of them felt misled," he added. "It's unbelievable. This is the West Coast's darkest hour. It doesn't get worse than this."
Lawrie Drew, the father of 21-year-old miner Zen Drew, later told reporters: "I am still hoping that somebody can be found that is still alive."
'Agonising blow'
The prime minister said he would travel to the area on Thursday to meet the miners' families and thank the resue crews.
"New Zealand is a small country, a country where we are our brother's keeper, so to lose this many brothers at once strikes an agonising blow," Mr Key told a news conference in Wellington.
"The 29 men whose names and faces we have all come to know, will never walk amongst us again. We are a nation in mourning."
He also offered his condolences to Australia, South Africa and the UK.
Mr Key praised all those involved in the rescue attempt, and said there would now be a full inquiry into how the tragedy had happened, with the aim of making sure that it did not happen again.
Governor-General Sir Anand Satyanand said the disaster would be felt at many levels, and was a great personal loss for the individual families and friends of those who died.
"There will be few on the West Coast who do not have a shared connection of some kind with those on whom this tragedy has impacted most directly," he said.
It was not immediately clear what triggered the second blast. However, Mr Whittall said it was not thought that any rescue work caused it.
"To the best of my knowledge, absolutely nothing that was being done up there has caused this," he added. "This has come from somewhere up in the mine. We weren't doing anything in the mine other than in the fresh air and that wouldn't have caused any explosion."
Air samples taken from inside the mine through a 162m (530ft) bore-hole completed on Wednesday had shown dangerous levels of methane and carbon monoxide, preventing rescuers from entering the mine.
Two robots had been sent into tunnels of the mine and a third was on its way in the hope of gaining a clearer pictures of the conditions underground.
Relatives of some of the miners had earlier questioned why rescuers had not immediately entered the mine after the first blast.
But Mr Whittall defended the decision to keep rescue workers out of the mine. "It's dangerous and it's hazardous and the rescue teams would be putting their lives gravely at risk," he said.
"While we were there and making that assessment, exactly what we said could happen, happened."
Mining expert David Feickert told TVNZ it was likely the men became unconscious from carbon monoxide prior to the second explosion and so would not have felt the blast.
Pike River is not far from the Strongman Mine, where an underground explosion killed 19 men in January 1967.
New Zealand's worst mining disaster was in 1896, when a gas explosion at the Brunner mine, also near Greymouth, left 65 miners dead. It accessed the same coal seam as the Pike River mine.
U.S. aircraft carrier heads for Korean waters
INCHEON, South Korea (Reuters) – A U.S. aircraft carrier group set off for Korean waters on Wednesday, a day after North Korea launched artillery shells on a South Korean island, a move likely to enrage Pyongyang and unsettle its ally, China.
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, U.S. officials in Seoul said.
"This exercise is defensive in nature," U.S. Forces Korea said in a statement. "While planned well before yesterday's unprovoked artillery attack, it demonstrates the strength of the ROK (South Korea)-U.S. alliance and our commitment to regional stability through deterrence."
The move appeared aimed at reinforcing heavy pressure on China to rein in North Korea after the reclusive nation fired dozens of artillery shells at the South Korean island. Two South Korean soldiers were killed and houses set ablaze in the heaviest attack in the region since the Korean War ended in 1953.
But Seoul was bustling as normal on a sunny autumn day, although developments were being closely watched by office workers on TV and in newspapers. Editorials stepped up pressure on President Lee Myung-bak to respond more toughly than he has to past provocations by the North and two small groups held anti-North Korea protests.
Pyongyang said the firing was in reaction to military drills conducted by South Korea in the area at the time but Seoul said it had not been firing at the North.
President Barack Obama, woken up in the early hours to be told of the artillery strike, said he was outraged and pressed the North to stop its provocative actions.
Although U.S. officials said the joint exercise was scheduled before the attack by North Korea, it was reminiscent of a crisis in 1996 when then President Bill Clinton sent an aircraft carrier group through the Taiwan Strait after Beijing test-fired missiles into the channel between the mainland and Taiwan.
"An aircraft carrier is the most visible sign of power projection there is...you could see this as a form of pre-emptive deterrence," said Lee Chung-min of Yonsei University in Seoul.
Tuesday's bombardment nagged at global markets, already unsettled by worries over Ireland's debt problem and looking to invest in less risky assets.
But South Korea's markets, after sharp falls, recovered lost ground.
"If you look back at the last five years when we've had scares, they were all seen as buying opportunities. The rule among hedge funds and long-only funds is that you let the market sell off and watch for your entry point to get involved," said Todd Martin, Asia equity strategist with Societe Generale in Hong Kong.
SEMI STATE OF WAR
"We're in a semi state of war," South Korean coastguard Kim Dong-jin told Reuters in the port city of Incheon where many residents of Yeonpyeong island fled in panic as the bombardment triggered a fire storm.
"My house was burned to the ground," said Cho Soon-ae, 47, who was among 170 or so evacuated from Yeonpyeong on Wednesday.
"We've lost everything. I don't even have extra underwear," she said weeping, holding on to her sixth-grade daughter, as she landed at Incheon.
Despite the rhetoric, regional powers made clear they were looking for a diplomatic way to calm things down.
South Korea, its armed forces technically superior though about half the size of the North's one-million-plus army, warned of "massive retaliation" if its neighbor attacked again.
But it was careful to avoid any immediate threat of retaliation which might spark an escalation of fighting across the Cold War's last frontier.
Japanese Prime Minister Naoto Kan called on China to help rein in the hermit state.
China has long propped up the Pyongyang leadership, worried that a collapse of the North could bring instability to its own borders and also wary of a unified Korea that would be dominated by the United States, the key ally of the South.
In a clear prod to Beijing during a visit to the Chinese capital, North Korea envoy Stephen Bosworth said: "We call on all members of the international community to condemn the DPRK's (North Korea's) acts and to make clear that they expect the DPRK to cease all provocations and implement its denuclearization commitments."
On Tuesday, Obama said he would urge China to tell Pyongyang "there are a set of international rules they must abide by."
Beijing said it had agreed with the United States to try to restart talks among regional powers over North Korea's nuclear weapons program.
A number of analysts suspect that Tuesday's attack may have been an attempt by North Korean leader Kim jong-il to raise his bargaining position ahead of disarmament talks which he has used in the past to win concessions and aid from the outside world, in particular the United States.
"It's Mr Kim's old game to get some attention and some economic goodies," said Lin Chong-pin, strategic studies professor at Tamkang University in Taipei.
Several analysts believe the attacks may also have been driven by domestic politics, with the ailing Kim desperate to give a lift to his youngest son, named as heir apparent to the family dynasty in September but who has little clear support in the military.
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, U.S. officials in Seoul said.
"This exercise is defensive in nature," U.S. Forces Korea said in a statement. "While planned well before yesterday's unprovoked artillery attack, it demonstrates the strength of the ROK (South Korea)-U.S. alliance and our commitment to regional stability through deterrence."
The move appeared aimed at reinforcing heavy pressure on China to rein in North Korea after the reclusive nation fired dozens of artillery shells at the South Korean island. Two South Korean soldiers were killed and houses set ablaze in the heaviest attack in the region since the Korean War ended in 1953.
But Seoul was bustling as normal on a sunny autumn day, although developments were being closely watched by office workers on TV and in newspapers. Editorials stepped up pressure on President Lee Myung-bak to respond more toughly than he has to past provocations by the North and two small groups held anti-North Korea protests.
Pyongyang said the firing was in reaction to military drills conducted by South Korea in the area at the time but Seoul said it had not been firing at the North.
President Barack Obama, woken up in the early hours to be told of the artillery strike, said he was outraged and pressed the North to stop its provocative actions.
Although U.S. officials said the joint exercise was scheduled before the attack by North Korea, it was reminiscent of a crisis in 1996 when then President Bill Clinton sent an aircraft carrier group through the Taiwan Strait after Beijing test-fired missiles into the channel between the mainland and Taiwan.
"An aircraft carrier is the most visible sign of power projection there is...you could see this as a form of pre-emptive deterrence," said Lee Chung-min of Yonsei University in Seoul.
Tuesday's bombardment nagged at global markets, already unsettled by worries over Ireland's debt problem and looking to invest in less risky assets.
But South Korea's markets, after sharp falls, recovered lost ground.
"If you look back at the last five years when we've had scares, they were all seen as buying opportunities. The rule among hedge funds and long-only funds is that you let the market sell off and watch for your entry point to get involved," said Todd Martin, Asia equity strategist with Societe Generale in Hong Kong.
SEMI STATE OF WAR
"We're in a semi state of war," South Korean coastguard Kim Dong-jin told Reuters in the port city of Incheon where many residents of Yeonpyeong island fled in panic as the bombardment triggered a fire storm.
"My house was burned to the ground," said Cho Soon-ae, 47, who was among 170 or so evacuated from Yeonpyeong on Wednesday.
"We've lost everything. I don't even have extra underwear," she said weeping, holding on to her sixth-grade daughter, as she landed at Incheon.
Despite the rhetoric, regional powers made clear they were looking for a diplomatic way to calm things down.
South Korea, its armed forces technically superior though about half the size of the North's one-million-plus army, warned of "massive retaliation" if its neighbor attacked again.
But it was careful to avoid any immediate threat of retaliation which might spark an escalation of fighting across the Cold War's last frontier.
Japanese Prime Minister Naoto Kan called on China to help rein in the hermit state.
China has long propped up the Pyongyang leadership, worried that a collapse of the North could bring instability to its own borders and also wary of a unified Korea that would be dominated by the United States, the key ally of the South.
In a clear prod to Beijing during a visit to the Chinese capital, North Korea envoy Stephen Bosworth said: "We call on all members of the international community to condemn the DPRK's (North Korea's) acts and to make clear that they expect the DPRK to cease all provocations and implement its denuclearization commitments."
On Tuesday, Obama said he would urge China to tell Pyongyang "there are a set of international rules they must abide by."
Beijing said it had agreed with the United States to try to restart talks among regional powers over North Korea's nuclear weapons program.
A number of analysts suspect that Tuesday's attack may have been an attempt by North Korean leader Kim jong-il to raise his bargaining position ahead of disarmament talks which he has used in the past to win concessions and aid from the outside world, in particular the United States.
"It's Mr Kim's old game to get some attention and some economic goodies," said Lin Chong-pin, strategic studies professor at Tamkang University in Taipei.
Several analysts believe the attacks may also have been driven by domestic politics, with the ailing Kim desperate to give a lift to his youngest son, named as heir apparent to the family dynasty in September but who has little clear support in the military.
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