N. Korea renews threat of clash along western sea border

By Kim Hyun
SEOUL, Feb. 13 (Yonhap) -- North Korea said Friday the western sea border with
South Korea "can no longer work" and warned of outbursts of conflict should Seoul
intrude "even one inch" into its maritime territory.

The renewed warning was issued by the North's party newspaper, the Rodong Sinmun,
as the South Korean military keeps a tense vigil along the border in the Yellow
Sea following a series of acerbic threats from Pyongyang.
The western sea border, known as the Northern Limit Line (NLL), has been a powder
keg on the peninsula. It was unilaterally drawn by the U.N. Command after the
1950-1953 Korean War and consistently disavowed by North Korea. Two bloody naval
skirmishes occurred in the area over the past decade, leaving scores of soldiers
dead or wounded on both sides.
The Rodong Sinmun accused the South's Lee Myung-bak government of trying to
incite a war by insisting on the "ghost border."
"The fact that the Lee Myung-bak group continues to hold onto this ghost border
clearly testifies to its wicked plot to initiate military clashes," it said in a
commentary titled "Northern Limit Line that can no longer work." "But the
bare-faced robbery of the Lee Myung-bak group can be no more accepted," it added.
A source said Friday that North Korea has unmasked a greater number of coastline
artillery and stepped up its drills along the maritime demarcation.
Two weeks ago, North Korea warned it was scrapping a 1991 non-aggression
agreement with South Korea and that it will no more respect the NLL. Pyongyang
had earlier vowed to take an "all-out confrontational posture" against the South.
Intelligence sources say North Korea now appears to be preparing to test-launch a
long-range missile, which in theory can reach the west coast of the United
States.
Seoul analysts say Pyongyang is using the missile ploy and other threats to grab
the attention of the new U.S. administration and pressure the conservative Lee
government into dropping its hard-line policy.
"If the Lee Myung-bak group intrudes even one inch into our divine territorial
waters, priding itself on the groundless, unreasonable Northern Limit Line, our
patience will explode with the anger of justice, and we will thoroughly crush the
warmongers into the raw waters of the Yellow Sea," the Rodong Sinmun said.
hkim@yna.co.kr
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