ID :
59565
Fri, 05/08/2009 - 12:07
Auther :

Yonhap Feature) N. Korea steps up force mobilization along sea border with S. Korea

(ATTN: Photos available)
By Sam Kim
BAENGNYEONG/YEONPYEONG ISLANDS, South Korea, May 8 (Yonhap) -- As a North Korean
battleship emerged from a haze that blurred the view of surrounding islets, a
pair of South Korean naval boats scrambled toward it and splashed back and forth
alongside their shared sea frontier.

The standoff near the Northern Limit Line, or NLL, lasted at least half an hour
Thursday afternoon, prompting South Korean Marines on the nearby island of
Baengnyeong to position themselves behind their automatic weapons.
"If they mobilize, we mobilize too," said a South Korean general-level officer
who declined to be identified, citing security policy. He added the North Korean
vessel appeared to be deployed to support its two patrol boats on duty.
"A scene like this is not totally uncommon here," he said.
Baengnyeong, about 190 kilometers west of Seoul, is one of several South Korean
islands in the Yellow Sea that the North has laid claim to since early this year.
It is South Korea's westernmost island that lies 90 kilometers west of
Yeonpyeong, near which two clashes erupted between the Koreas in 1999 and 2002,
resulting in the deaths of dozens on both sides.
Each of the islands is located just several kilometers away from North Korea,
which is believed to operate over 70 boats and 280 airplanes to patrol the
western sea border it shares with South Korea.
On Jan. 17, the North Korean military announced it would place its forces on an
"all-out confrontational posture" and "no longer sit by idly" as South Korea
continues to control the borderline islands.
The country has also ditched all its military accords with the South and warned
of an armed conflict near the NLL, expressing anger over the conservative stance
taken by the South Korean administration that came to power early last year.
Since the January announcement, North Korea has breached the NLL three times in
February and March, said a South Korean colonel overseeing Yeonpyeong, about an
hour's flight by chopper from Seoul.
The violation of the border -- drawn by the U.S.-led United Nations Command at
the end of the 1950-53 Korean War that ended in a truce -- came as North Korean
naval ships moved eastward for routine relocation, he said.
"Each ship reached about two to three kilometers into our territory," he said,
adding live-fire artillery training has also doubled this year along the North
Korean coastline.
Chinese fishing boats also pose a concern for the South Korean forces, he said,
gazing out over 100 of them operating along the flashpoint.
"They exploit our standoff here, operating on the edge of the border and avoiding
a crackdown by either side," the colonel said. "They also know we can't send our
ships too close to the NLL because that would raise tension."
The officer asked for anonymity because he feared information on him could be
collected by North Korean intelligence officers.
Disclosing that the number of sorties by North Korean aircraft rose six times
from a year earlier, he said about 100 fighter jets and surveillance airplanes
took off from bases south of Pyongyang on April 7, just two days after Pyongyang
went ahead with a rocket launch that Seoul and Washington say was, in fact, a
missile test.
South Korean Marines activate and load their shoreline Vulcan cannons every time
a North Korean airplane flies within a radius of 40 miles (64 kilometers), the
commander on Baengnyeong said, adding an enemy fighter jet could reach his forces
in "just two minutes."
"It's drilling on our soldiers because such an alert is raised at least twice a
day," he said, disclosing the frequency of such flights has doubled compared to
last year.
Nearly 70 percent, or 1,100, of all aircraft activities below Pyongyang
originated from a coastline airbase in Kwail this year, he said, adding South
Korea's Air Force "counter-flies" each time.
The relations between the Koreas are at their worst point in a decade after
President Lee Myung-bak took office with a pledge to get tough on the nuclear
weapons programs pursued by Pyongyang.
The talks between the sides have nearly come to a halt, and the North continues
to detain a South Korean man whom it claims denounced its regime and encouraged a
local woman to defect from the joint industrial complex in the border city of
Kaesong.
Last week, in a message that further raised tension on the divided peninsula, the
North said it would go ahead with additional nuclear and missile tests if the
U.N. Security Council fails to withdraw the condemnation of its rocket launch
that it says orbited a satellite.
U.S. and Japanese officials say no object entered space. South Korean officials
recently said the communist state appears poised to complete the seven-year
development of its newest launch pad on the west coast by June at the latest.
North Korea tested a missile thruster at the Dongchang-ri site last year, while
experts fear the regime could unexpectedly test a nuclear device as it is
believed to operate an underground facility.
The country conducted its first known nuclear test in October 2006.
samkim@yna.co.kr
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