(4th LD) N. Korea fires artillery, ups tension near sea border

(ATTN: CHANGES headline, lead; COMBINES earlier stories; UPDATES with developments
throughout)
SEOUL, Jan. 27 (Yonhap) -- North Korea on Wednesday fired dozens of artillery
shells into waters near the inter-Korean sea border on two separate occasions and
vowed to continue firing, ignoring warnings by South Korea that included cannon
fire.

After firing the first batch of about 30 artillery shells in the morning, North
Korea began firing again at 3:25 p.m., with dozen more shells landing north of
the Northern Limit Line (NLL), the de facto inter-Korean maritime border in the
west sea. The area is within the boundaries recently declared by the communist
state as "no-sail zones," Seoul's Joint Chiefs of Staff (JCS) said.
South Korea responded to the first round of North Korean shells with 100 warning
shots from shoreline Vulcan cannons with a range of 3-4 kilometers, though the
South Korean navy did not respond to the second volley, instead releasing two
more warning messages to the North. The navy is "observing the situation with
caution," according to the JCS. No casualties or injuries were reported.
"North Korea appears to be firing on even as we talk," said Park Sung-woo, head
of the JCS press relations bureau. "But we are not making a counterattack as the
shells are continuing to fall within the North Korean waters."
Claiming the moves are part of an annual military drill, North Korea said it will
continue with the firing in a statement carried by its Korean Central News
Agency.
"No one can argue about the premeditated exercises staged by Korean People's Army
units in waters of the north side," the North Korean army's General Staff said in
the statement. "Such firing drill by the units of the KPA will go on in the same
waters in the future, too."
The statement came soon after Seoul expressed its regret to Pyongyang through a
military hotline over the provocations as well as its previous declaration of
no-sail zones.
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 multinational negotiations over its
nuclear disarmament. North Korea, however, has conditioned its return on 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 so-called "peacetime firing zone" last month in an area
just south of the NLL.
While holding back from immediate counterattacks, the South Korean military said
it is "fully prepared to make a military response" should North Korea's
provocations exceed the limit line.
"We would have made a counterattack if the shells flew toward the west (of the
NLL into South Korean territorial waters), but they landed on the north side,"
Lee Gi-shik, a senior JCS officer, told reporters. "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."
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, the first in more than seven years,
ended with the North Korean ship retreating back to port in flames after being
fired on by the South Korean navy.
About a month before the exchange, 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.
South Korean President Lee Myung-bak, who just completed a four-day visit to
India and is now in Switzerland to attend a global forum, was briefed on the
incident while his aides, including his chief of staff, held an emergency
security meeting in Seoul.
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 that include South Korea, the United States, Japan, Russia and China.
hayney@yna.co.kr
(END)

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