Yule tree sends rebuke to N. Korea

GIMPO, South Korea - As troops stood guard and a choir sang carols Tuesday, South Koreans lit a massive steel Christmas tree that overlooks the world's most heavily armed border and is within sight of atheist North Korea.

The lighting of the tree after a seven-year hiatus marked a pointed return to a tradition condemned in Pyongyang as propaganda. The provocative ceremony - which must receive government permission - was also a sign that President Lee Myung Bak's administration is serious about countering the North's aggression with measures of its own after an artillery attack that killed four South Koreans last month.

While the North has made some conciliatory gestures in recent days - indicating to a visiting U.S. governor that it might allow international inspections of its nuclear programs - Seoul appears unmoved.

Pyongyang has used a combination of aggression and reconciliation before to extract concessions from the international community, and the resurrection of the tree lighting at Aegibong is a signal that the South is ready to play hardball until it sees real change from the North.

Earlier, a South Korean destroyer prowled the sea and fighter jets tore across the skies in preparation for possible North Korean attacks a day after Seoul held a round of artillery drills from a frontline island.

After warning of deadly retaliation, North Korea said it would not deign to fight back, and indicated to visiting New Mexico Gov. Bill Richardson that it was prepared to consider ways to work with the South on restoring security along the tense border.

But a senior South Korean government official said the military would remain prepared for the possibility of a "surprise" attack in coming days. He spoke on condition of anonymity due to the sensitivity of the matter.

On Aegibong Peak, about a mile from the Demilitarized Zone that divides the Korean peninsula, marines toting rifles circled the Christmas tree as more than 100,000 twinkling lights blinked on. The brightly lit tree - with a cross on top - stood in stark relief to North Korea, where electricity is limited.