South Korea returns fire on North Korea

South Korea responded by returning fire towards its northern neighbour. The Seoul government also put F-16 fighter jets on alert and convened an emergency meeting at the presidential office. South Korean President Lee Myung-bak said he would make efforts to prevent the exchange of fire from escalating into a wider conflict on the peninsula. At the same time, he expressed a willingness to adopt a more hardline response if Pyongyang continued with provocations. Speaking at a regular news conference on 23 November, a spokesman for the Chinese Foreign Ministry, Hong Lei, expressed the Beijing government's concern and called on the "relevant parties to do more to contribute to peace and stability on the Korean Peninsula".