N. Korea fires into waters near sea border, Seoul fires back warning shots

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SEOUL, Jan. 27 (Yonhap) -- North Korea fired dozens of artillery shells into
waters near the inter-Korean sea border Wednesday, while the South responded
immediately with warning shots into the air, Seoul officials said.
North Korea fired about 30 artillery shells from 9:05 a.m. through 10:16 a.m.,
and the shells landed about 2.25 kilometers or 1.5 miles north of the Northern
Limit Line (NLL), de facto inter-Korean maritime borderline in the west sea. It
was within the boundary of the area the communist state previously declared as
"no-sail zones," Seoul's Joint Chiefs of Staff (JCS) said.
The South Korean navy responded by firing about 100 shoreline Vulcan cannons with
a range of 3-4 kilometers only as "warning shots" as the North Korean shells
landed on its own waters, according to the JCS. No casualties or injuries were
reported as both sides fired toward the air and no fishing boats were then on
duty.
South Korea promised it will immediate respond if the North fires again.
The South Korean military said, shortly after Pyongyang fired dozens artillery
shells into waters near the inter-Korean sea border, that Seoul is fully prepared
to make a military response should North Korea makes further provocations
exceeding its limit line.
"We would have made a counterattack if the shells flew toward the west (of the
NLL into the South Korean territorial waters), but it landed on north side," a
senior officer of the JCS told a press briefing. "We will act upon our exchange
fire principles, however, should North Korea cross the line. We are fully
prepared for all circumstances and are on high alert."
Seoul sent North Korea three messages after the shells were detected on its
radar, warning counteraction unless it stops firing, Lee added.
"We are not detecting any further peculiar movements (by the North) so far," said
Park Sung-woo, another JCS official, adding the ground, naval and air forces of
South Korea are on a "full preparation mode."
Meanwhile, President Lee Myung-bak, who was visiting India, was briefed on the
incident. President's chief of staff Chung Jung-gil, in Seoul, presided over a
security meeting on the matter, where securityr-related ministers attended,
officials of the presidential office Cheong Wa Dae said.
The two Koreas, who are technically still at war as the 1950-53 conflict ended in
a truce, were engaged in a brief naval clash on Nov. 13 after a North Korean ship
violated the sea border. The naval clash, which came in more than seven years,
had ended with the North Korean ship limping back to port in flames after being
hit by the South Korean navy.
About a month before the fire fight, North Korea fired short-range missiles off
its east coast, the latest in a series of weapons tests that included the May
detonation of its second nuclear device. North Korea pulled out of the six-party
denuclearization talks in April after the United Nations imposed sanctions for
its earlier missile tests.
North Korea on Monday declared the waters near the South's northernmost islands
of Baeknyeong and Daecheong in the Yellow Sea as no-sail zones, raising tensions
after indicating a renewed will to return to the multinational negotiations over
its nuclear disarmament. North Korea, however, has conditioned its return upon
the lifting of international sanctions.
The no-sail zones overlap with the NLL, drawn by the U.S.-led United Nations
Command at the end of the Korean War and claimed void by Pyongyang. The communist
state unilaterally set a peacetime firing zone last month in an area just south
of the NLL.
Analysts here say the latest provocative moves by Pyongyang indicate its attempt
to increase leverage as it prepares to return to the denuclearization-for-aid six
party talks with the South, the United States, Japan, Russia and China.
hayney@yna.co.kr
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