(7th LD) N. Korea scraps agreement on sea border with S. Korea

SEOUL, Jan. 30 (Yonhap) -- North Korea said Friday it is scrapping all reconciliatory accords with South Korea and declared a sea border void in its harshest warning in decades, apparently aimed at pressuring Seoul to abandon its hard-line policy.

Pyongyang revived Cold War era tensions ahead of envisioned negotiations with the
United States and other regional powers on its nuclear weapons program. Seoul
expressed "deep regret" and urged Pyongyang to agree to dialogue.
"The group of traitors (the Seoul government) 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, an
organ of the Workers' Party, said.
"Under such a 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.
North Korea was denying the landmark Basic Agreement reached in 1991, in which
the Koreas pledged not to invade each other and to boost reconciliatory efforts.
The agreement particularly sought to reduce military tension along a volatile
western sea border.
The 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, and North Korea has insisted that it be redrawn farther south.
Bloody naval clashes occurred there in 1999 and 2002, claiming the lives of
scores of soldiers on both sides.
The North said "the points on the military boundary line in the West Sea
stipulated in its appendix (of the Basic Agreement) will be nullified."
Tension has considerably risen on the peninsula since conservative President Lee
Myung-bak took office 11 months ago. His recent nomination of a hawkish scholar
as the new unification minister has further enraged North Korea.
Hyun In-taek, a political science professor at Korea University, was an advocate
of the Seoul-Washington alliance and a key architect of Lee's North Korea policy
linking economic aid to Pyongyang's denuclearization. In line with that policy,
Lee suspended South Korea's customary rice and fertilizer aid to the North.
With Hyun's appointment, the North said, "Inter-Korean relations have reached
such a pass that there is neither a way to improve them nor hope to bring them on
track."
Put on heightened alert, South Korea braced for a possible naval clash, but no
unusual signs were spotted along the border, the military said.
North Korean commercial boats continued passing through the strait off South
Korea's southern island of Jeju under a 2005 shipping treaty, officials said.
"Our government expresses deep regret to North Korea," Kim Ho-nyoun, spokesman
for the Unification Ministry handling North Korean affairs, said, "We urge North
Korea to accept our call for dialogue as soon as possible."
Any attempt by North Korea to violate the sea border will face firm
counteraction, said Won tae-jae, spokesman for the Ministry of National Defense.
Kim Young-soo, a political science professor at Sogang University, said North
Korea may try to trigger military skirmishes to draw attention of the new U.S.
administration.
"It is a message both to South Korea and the United States," he said. "Pyongyang
is saying to Washington, 'We won't wait for U.S. engagement. We'll find a
solution by driving the situation to the brink of a catastrophe.'"
Pyongyang has recently vowed to hold onto its nuclear weapons program until the
U.S. removes military threats against the North. Analysts said the brinkmanship
was not a military threat but a diplomatic tactic.
Obama vowed to work with "old allies and former foes" to lessen the nuclear
threat, a departure from George W. Bush, who rejected direct engagement with
foes.
Negotiations aimed at ending North Korea's nuclear program, grouping the Koreas,
the U.S., China, Japan and Russia, are on hold due to the dispute over how to
verify Pyongyang's nuclear activities.
Echoing Pyongyang's expectations, a pro-North Korea newspaper in Japan, the
Choson Sinbo, set out a positive view on Obama on Friday.
"Mr. Obama is seeking negotiations, engagement and a peaceful solution as if he
is trying to regain the 'lost eight years' of the Bush administration," the
commentary said.
Investors were undaunted by the North's threat. South Korean stocks fell a mere
0.38 percent Friday, with the drop caused by economic concerns.
Whether Pyongyang will immediately try a military provocation is uncertain, but
analysts cautioned Seoul to be on full alert along the western sea border.
"The North is sensing that South Korea's government is becoming more
conservative," Koh Yu-hwan, a North Korea professor at Dongguk University, said.
"North Korea is saying that it won't just sit and watch."
hkim@yna.co.kr
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