(LEAD) U.S. denounces N. Korea for raising regional tensions with cannon firing: State Dept.

(ATTN: ADDS remarks by Pentagon spokesman in paras 5-8)
By Hwang Doo-hyong
WASHINGTON, Jan. 27 (Yonhap) -- The United States Wednesday denounced North Korea
for escalating tensions on the Korean Peninsula by firing artillery shells along
the disputed western sea border.

"The declaration by North Korea of a no-sail zone and the live firing of
artillery are provocative actions and as such are not helpful," State Department
spokesman Philip Crowley said.
North Korea fired about 80 cannon shells earlier in the day from its western
shore into the no-sail zone it declared a couple of days ago, apparently to
heighten tension in South Korea, still technically at war since the Korean War
ended in 1953 with an armistice, not a peace treaty.
South Korea fired back more than 100 artillery rounds.
Pentagon spokesman Geoff Morrell called on both Koreas to show restraint.
"Although this is a bilateral issue, fundamentally, between the North and the
South, we clearly are discouraging of any further acts of aggression which would
in any way increase the tensions along this historically disputed boundary area,"
Morrell said. "So we want to see everybody exercise restraint as they deal with
this issue."
Morrell would not elaborate on the North's intentions, but urged the North to
return to six-party talks on ending its nuclear ambitions without heightening
tensions.
"I would say that it's always difficult to interpret the intentions behind North
Korea's actions," he said. "And we, however, have made it very clear that there
is a path open to the North Koreans in the framework of the six-party talks to
achieve the security, international respect that they seek -- or at least they
say they seek. So provocative actions such as those that we saw yesterday are
clearly not part of that path."
North Korea has often given notice of a no-sail zone before it conducts missile
tests. But some analysts say the regime this time might be underscoring the lack
of a peace treaty.
The North is insisting on a treaty ahead of its return to the six-party nuclear
talks, stalled over U.N. sanctions over its missile and nuclear tests.
Washington has said it is open to a discussion of a peace treaty and the lifting
of sanctions, but insists that Pyongyang return to the talks before any other
issues are addressed.
The artillery salvos come amid conflicting gestures from the North.
On one hand, it has threatened a "sacred war" against South Korea over its
alleged contingency plan to cope with any regime change in the reclusive
communist state. On the other, it has proposed talks for the operation of the
joint industrial complex in the border town of Kaesong and inter-Korean tour
projects.
North Korea has long tried to defy the Northern Limit Line, the de-facto sea
border drawn by the United Nations Command after the 1950-1953 Korean War,
demanding the line be drawn farther south.
Waters in the Yellow Sea off the inter-Korean border were the scene of bloody
naval skirmishes on three occasions in 1999, 2002 and 2009.
The latest clash, in November, left a North Korean patrol boat in flames, one
North Korean soldier dead and several others injured. There were no South Korean
casualties.
hdh@yna.co.kr
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