SEOUL, Nov. 30 (Yonhap) -- South Korea's military plans to toughen its rules of engagement with North Korea in a way that gives its troops greater leeway to determine the intensity of a counterattack by the level of damage and threats received, the defense ministry said Tuesday.

   The revision plans came amid mounting public criticism in South Korea that the country's military responded too slowly and too weakly to North Korea's Nov. 23 artillery strike on Yeonpyeong Island, which killed four people, including two civilians, and wounded 18 others.

   The envisioned change, reported to the National Assembly, will free South Korean forces from the existing regulations that stipulate they should respond to an enemy attack with the same kind of weapons and the same amount of firepower the enemy used.

   "We plan to make supplements to guarantee conditions for punishing the enemy," the ministry report said.

   The military also plans to give greater leeway to field commanders in counterattacks and give more power to the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff in order to help the military respond to an enemy attack in a timely manner, the ministry said.

   "We plan to differentiate the levels of responses to attacks on the military and attacks on civilians," the ministry said. Revision of the rules of engagement will be made in consultation with the U.S.-led United Nations Command and the South Korea-U.S. Combined Forces Command, it said.

   The military also said it plans to seek a 360 billion won (US$310 million) additional increase in its budget for next year to beef up firepower on Yeonpyeong and other front-line islands, including deploying K-77 armored vehicles and K-10 ammunition supply vehicles.

   Multiple rocket launchers and anti-artillery radars have already been deployed to Yeonpyeong. In case of further provocations by North Korea, the UNC will provide support, the ministry said.

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