South Korea on Saturday laid to rest two marines killed in North Korea's artillery strikes, on the eve of massive naval war games with the United States that have angered Pyongyang and its ally Beijing.
At a sombre funeral attended by political leaders, top military brass and tearful relatives, hundreds of uniformed troops commemorated the marines killed along with two civilians in the attack on a frontline island Tuesday.
"We will certainly avenge your deaths," Marine commander Lieutenant General Yoo Nak-Joon said at the ceremony for Sergeant Suh Jung-Woo, 22, and Private Moon Kwang-Wook, 20, held in a packed hall at a military hospital near Seoul.
The emotional ceremony came amid the worst crisis in decades on the divided Korean peninsula, triggered by North Korea's bombardment of the small border island of Yeonpyeong, located near their flashpoint maritime border.
Nuclear-powered carrier the USS George Washington and its battle group were heading for waters west of the Korean peninsula for four days of exercises from Sunday, which have also angered China, North Korea's main ally.
Washington stressed that the Yellow Sea manoeuvre is "defensive in nature", was planned before North Korea's attack, and is not aimed against China.
But the United States also says that its display of naval firepower will act as a "deterrent" to the volatile regime of Kim Jong-Il, which has kept the region on edge for years with its nuclear and long-range missile tests.
China has resisted taking sides in the worst flare-up in decades between the Koreas, only generally urging calm after the attack, in which South Korean forces returned artillery fire at North Korean coastal positions.
Beijing was more outspoken in its opposition to the US-South Korean drills.
"We hold a consistent and clear-cut stance on the issue," China's foreign ministry spokesman Hong Lei said in a statement yesterday.
"We oppose any party to take any military actions in our exclusive economic zone without permission," it said, referring to the sea area that stretches 200 nautical miles from a country's shores.
China's foreign minister Yang Jiechi spoke with US secretary of state Hillary Clinton and his South Korean counterpart Friday about the tense situation on the Korean peninsula, the ministry said without giving details.
"Secretary Clinton talked with Chinese foreign minister Yang on Saturday and encouraged Beijing to make clear that North Korea's behaviour is unacceptable," state department spokesman PJ Crowley later told reporters.