In this Jan. 27, 2011 photo released by Takaharu Town Office, lightning is pictured with time exposure during an eruption from Mount Shinmoedake in the Kirishima range on the border of Kagoshima and Miyazaki prefectures, southern Japan. Smoke and ash continued to spew from the volcano in southern Japan on Thursday as local officials raised the alert level and banned residents from going within a two kilometer (1.2 miles) radius of the mountain. (AP Photo/Takaharu Town Office, Shuji Uchimura)
Balloons with leaflets attached to condemn North Korea are released by defectors from North Korea and conservative activists during a rally against last Tuesday’s North Korean bombardment on a South Korean border island, at the Imjingak Pavilion near the border village of the Panmunjom (DMZ) that separates the two Koreas since the Korean War, in Paju, South Korea, Tuesday, Nov. 30, 2010. Balloons have slogans written that read “Overthrow Kim Jong Il’s Dictatorship.” (AP Photo/Ahn Young-joon)
A U.S. Navy F/A-18F Super Hornet fighter attack aircraft sits on a steam catapult before launching off the deck of the USS George Washington, during a joint military exercise off South Korea’s West Sea, in South Korea’s West Sea on Tuesday, Nov. 30, 2010. Jets roared off a supercarrier in U.S.-South Korean war games Tuesday, as the U.S. and two crucial Asian allies agreed to talk in Washington about North Korea’s attack on a South Korean island and the North’s nuclear weapons programs. (AP Photo/Wally Santana
A South Korean navy ship sails near the Yeonpyeong Island, South Korea, Friday, Nov. 26, 2010. South Korean President Lee Myung-bak ordered more troops to the front-line island and dumped his defense minister Thursday as the country grappled with lapses in its response to a deadly North Korean artillery strike. (AP Photo/Lee Jin-man)
