40 North Korean soldiers killed, wounded during Yeonpyeong counterattack...

Radio Free Asia says roughly 40 North Korean soldiers were killed or wounded during South Korea's counterattack following the North's shelling of a South Korean island in late 2010.

The U.S. broadcaster released the report Friday citing a North Korean source in the North's South Hwanghae Province. The source apparently heard from a North Korean battalion commander that about ten North Korean soldiers were killed and 30 others wounded during the exchange of fire prompted by the North's shelling of Yeonpyeong Island.

The source said the commander saw a military vehicle transporting the dead bodies and the wounded to a military hospital known as "Hospital No. 11" in Pyongyang run by the North's Joint Chiefs of Staff.

Radio Free Asia says this source shares close ties with officials of the Fourth Army Corps, which is known to have perpetrated the Yeonpyeong shelling.

The source, who recently traveled to China and revealed the story, says the North Korean military is apparently frightened by South Korea's cutting-edge weapons and has been reluctant to fight the South since the Yeonpyeong shelling.
(KBS World Radio, 2012-03-02)