N. Korea stakes fresh claim on disputed sea border with S. Korea

SEOUL, Jan. 17 (Yonhap) -- North Korea laid its first claim this year over a disputed Yellow Sea border with South Korea on Saturday, just hours after it declared its intent to retain nuclear arms regardless of normalization of ties with the United States.

The statement by a spokesman for the North Korean joint chiefs of staff comes as
relations between the two Koreas are at one of their lowest points in history.
It also criticized South Korea's defense minister, who warned early this month
against possible aggression by North Korea near the Northern Limit Line (NLL), a
disputed sea border where bloody naval skirmishes took place in 1999 and 2002.
"Until the day Korea is united, only the military border that we have drawn shall
exist," the statement said, carried by the North's official Korean Central News
Agency.
"We hereby declare clearly that our revolutionary armed forces will maintain the
border that we have professed to the world," it said.
The statement came hours after a spokesman for the North's foreign ministry said
it may not give up its nuclear weapons even if Pyongyang-Washington ties are
normalized.
The NLL was unilaterally drawn by the U.S.-led U.N. forces at the end of the
1950-53 Korean War, which ended in a truce rather than a peace treaty. North
Korea disputes the de-facto maritime border, and its boats have often intruded
past the line.
samkim@yna.co.kr