SEOUL, Vice Veterans Minister Lee Hee-wan will visit an island near the western border with North Korea this week to pay his respects at the memorial for his former comrades killed in the 2002 inter-Korean naval clash in nearby waters, the veterans ministry said Wednesday.

The former Navy captain will visit Yeonpyeong Island, just south of the Northern Limit Line, the de facto maritime border between the two Koreas, on Thursday, as tensions run high after the North fired artillery shells near the sea boundary earlier this month.

Lee lost his right leg after being hit by a North Korean shell during the 2002 naval skirmish off the border island.

The skirmish began with a surprise attack by North Korean patrol ships and left six South Koreans killed and 18 wounded, while some 30 North Koreans were presumed to have been killed or wounded, according to the South’s Navy.

Lee plans to visit a Marine Corps unit on the island to encourage the troops and pay his respects at the remembrance wall for those killed in
the 2002 clash.

He will also meet a 1950-53 Korean War veteran living on the island and visit the memorial for two Marines killed during North Korea’s shelling of the island in 2010. The bombardment also killed two civilians on the island.

Source: Yonhap News Agency