"This is a special place. This is the island that protects South Korea." For Song Young-ok, Yeonpyeong is more than just a small, six-square-kilometer island in the Yellow Sea, 80 kilometers west of the South Korean port city of Inchon. Originally from Seoul, the manager of the Dooly guesthouse enjoys the hilly landscape, the crabs − famous throughout the peninsula − and the colonies of egrets that flock here in spring.

She knows that the island is of major strategic importance. On January 5, its 1,800 inhabitants were forced to take shelter as North Korea fired artillery from the coast of South Hwanghae province, 12 kilometers to the north.

The island is at the heart of inter-Korean tensions largely caused by differences over the delineation of the Northern Limit Line (NLL), a maritime boundary drawn by the United Nations at the end of the Korean War (1950-1953), but contested by Pyongyang. From its pine-covered heights, you can see the North Korean islands on a clear day. The nearest, Seokdo, is only three kilometers away. Binoculars reveal fortifications, with their openings pointing southward.

This proximity explains the massive military presence in Yeonpyeong. Navy patrol boats are anchored at the port. Each of the island's small roads inevitably leads to the army base. Every crossroads is protected by gun emplacements concealed under camouflage netting. Massive bunkers with facades in shades of khaki have been dug into the mountains. Radar systems, antennas, and observation towers stand atop each peak. At the entrance to the few pebble beaches that can be reached, the same warning is always posted: "Beware of mines washed up on the beach."

There are also monuments erected to commemorate the victims of inter-Korean clashes, with the first dating back to 1967. Then there were the "naval battles" of 1999 and 2002 between boats from the two Koreas, which claimed around 10 lives. In 2010, a North Korean bombardment killed four people, including two soldiers, and destroyed several houses.

The small town has been rebuilt. The government has invested 758.5 billion won (€525 million) in sports facilities, new shelters, a network of surveillance cameras, and memorial sites. The ruins of three destroyed houses have been left standing in tribute, next to a small museum that displays the history of inter-Korean confrontations.

Everywhere in Yeonpyeong, holes from artillery shelling are a reminder of the threat hanging over its residents, rekindled by the January 5 shooting. "It's scary. The alarm is given over loudspeakers and by cell phone. I had to stop everything and rush to safety," said the janitor of the small museum.

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