Washington - The United States said on Wednesday it believes North Korea's artillery attack on a South Korean island was linked to leader Kim Jong-il's effort to pass power to his son and was not the start of a military offensive against South Korea.
The shelling on Tuesday was one of the heaviest attacks since the end of the Korean war in 1953 and has left Washington struggling to find a way to respond to Pyongyang's aggression without tipping the peninsula into wider conflict.
Admiral Mike Mullen, the top US military officer, said China's leadership was “absolutely critical”, given its unique influence on North Korea's secretive leadership.
A US aircraft carrier group set off for Korean waters on Wednesday for military exercises with South Korea due to begin on Sunday, the kind of show of force that China has previously opposed.
The Pentagon said the exercises were not linked to Tuesday's strike by Pyongyang. Instead, they were part of a series of previously announced drills that have been the centrepiece of US military strategy to deter the North from future attack since July.
That strategy, by the Pentagon's own admission, has failed to sway Pyongyang, however.
“Past exercises, sanctions, international condemnation - there have been any number of things that have been intended to curb the North's aggression that, for whatever reason, the North has chosen to disregard,” Pentagon spokesperson Colonel Dave Lapan said. - Reuters