ID :
43270
Fri, 01/30/2009 - 07:09
Auther :
Shortlink :
https://www.oananews.org//node/43270
The shortlink copeid
N. Korea scraps agreement on sea border with S. Korea
SEOUL, Jan. 30 (Yonhap) -- North Korea on Friday scrapped all its military agreements with South Korea and declared a western sea border void, sharply raising tensions and the possibility of another naval clash.
"The group of traitors has already reduced all the agreements reached between the
north and the south in the past to dead documents," the North's Committee for the
Peaceful Reunification of Korea, a body handling inter-Korean affairs, said in a
statement carried by the state-run Korean Central News Agency.
"Under such situation it is self-evident that there is no need for the DPRK to
remain bound to those north-south agreements," it said. DPRK is the acronym for
the North's official name, the Democratic People's Republic of Korea.
The western maritime sea border in the Yellow Sea, called the Northern Limit
Line, was unilaterally drawn by the U.S.-led United Nations Command at the end of
the 1950-53 Korean War. Pyongyang has claimed it should be re-drawn farther
south. The war ended in a ceasefire, not a formal peace treaty, leaving the two
Koreas technically at war.
Bloody naval clashes occurred in 1999 and 2002 along the border, claiming the
lives of scores of soldiers on both sides.
Earlier in January, North Korea's military warned of a possible naval clash,
accusing South Korea of preparing for a war against it and saying it had been
forced to take "an all confrontational posture" against the South.
Friday's statement was more specific.
"First, all the agreed points concerning the issue of putting an end to the
political and military confrontation between the north and the south will be
nullified," it said.
"Second, the Agreement on Reconciliation, Non-aggression, Cooperation and
Exchange between the North and the South and the points on the military boundary
line in the West Sea stipulated in its appendix will be nullified," the statement
said, referring to the Yellow Sea.
Asked how seriously Seoul takes Pyongyang's latest saber-rattling, South Korean
Unification Ministry spokesman Kim Ho-nyoun said the government was studying the
North's message and that an official statement will soon be released.
As to whether the latest move might be an attempt to draw the attention of the
new U.S. administration of Barack Obama, the spokesman said, "This is between the
South and the North."
hkim@yna.co.kr
(END)
"The group of traitors has already reduced all the agreements reached between the
north and the south in the past to dead documents," the North's Committee for the
Peaceful Reunification of Korea, a body handling inter-Korean affairs, said in a
statement carried by the state-run Korean Central News Agency.
"Under such situation it is self-evident that there is no need for the DPRK to
remain bound to those north-south agreements," it said. DPRK is the acronym for
the North's official name, the Democratic People's Republic of Korea.
The western maritime sea border in the Yellow Sea, called the Northern Limit
Line, was unilaterally drawn by the U.S.-led United Nations Command at the end of
the 1950-53 Korean War. Pyongyang has claimed it should be re-drawn farther
south. The war ended in a ceasefire, not a formal peace treaty, leaving the two
Koreas technically at war.
Bloody naval clashes occurred in 1999 and 2002 along the border, claiming the
lives of scores of soldiers on both sides.
Earlier in January, North Korea's military warned of a possible naval clash,
accusing South Korea of preparing for a war against it and saying it had been
forced to take "an all confrontational posture" against the South.
Friday's statement was more specific.
"First, all the agreed points concerning the issue of putting an end to the
political and military confrontation between the north and the south will be
nullified," it said.
"Second, the Agreement on Reconciliation, Non-aggression, Cooperation and
Exchange between the North and the South and the points on the military boundary
line in the West Sea stipulated in its appendix will be nullified," the statement
said, referring to the Yellow Sea.
Asked how seriously Seoul takes Pyongyang's latest saber-rattling, South Korean
Unification Ministry spokesman Kim Ho-nyoun said the government was studying the
North's message and that an official statement will soon be released.
As to whether the latest move might be an attempt to draw the attention of the
new U.S. administration of Barack Obama, the spokesman said, "This is between the
South and the North."
hkim@yna.co.kr
(END)
