South Korean Defense Minister Kim Tae-young resigned Thursday, according to the South Korean presidency. "The president has just accepted the defense minister's resignation," according to a spokesman for the Presidential Blue House. Kim, a former general, came under heavy criticism after the March sinking of the South Korean vessel Cheonan and again after the North Korean shelling of the South's Yeonpyeong Island on Tuesday. North Korea has been blamed by the South and other nations for the Cheonan incident, in which 46 soldiers were killed, but has denied responsibility. It has blamed South Korea and the United States for the Yeonpyeong incident, in which two South Korean marines and two civilians were killed and 15 others injured.