Koreas Clash: Seoul a City on the Edge
On Wednesday the Obama administration called the North's artillery attack a "premeditated" violation of the longstanding truce.
CBS News correspondent Celia Hatton reports images of emotional memorials, exhausted evacuees and mangled buildings gripped South Korea Wednesday. The country is on high alert following Tuesday's artillery battle between North and South Korea that killed two South Korean marines and two civilians on the island Yeonpyeong.
"I was really scared," said one evacuee.
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Many here, especially young South Koreans, say it's time to retaliate.
"I wonder if South Korea appears to be too weak," says one Seoul resident.
Older generations who have memories of the carnage in the Korean War are more fearful of what might happen if Pyongyang is pushed too far.
"How do you slap North Korea down, teach it a lesson, without actually spreading conflict?" says CBS News national security analyst Juan Zarate.
President Obama has been in close contact with his ally South Korean Leader Lee Mhyung-Bak but even the strongest of allies are left with what one official calls "the land of lousy options."
A joint U.S.-South Korean naval exercise this weekend that includes the U.S. carrier George Washington will demonstrate resolve. But few believe it will deter North Korea from future provocations.
Some analysts argue the outside world must understand that Kim Jong-Il's regime has its own logic and its own priorities, even if Washington and Seoul don't share them.
"If you're a military-first state and the only thing that you have and that people can be proud of and support you for is military strength, then it stands to reason that you can't make any concessions," associate professor of international studies Brian Myers of Dongseo University.
Flexing North Korea's military muscle is one way for Kim Jong-Il to win over the country's hardliners as he hands over power to his son Kim Jong-Un. Tuesday's attack proved just how far he's willing to go.