President Lee gathers large-scale security meeting amid N. Korea threats

By Sam Kim
SEOUL, Feb. 17 (Yonhap) -- President Lee Myung-bak assembled the largest annual
national security meeting Tuesday amid heightening fears of a North Korean
provocation, the defense ministry said.
The meeting, which drew roughly 200 top military, intelligence, law enforcement
and local government officials, marked the first time that a South Korean leader
has presided over it in five years.
Begun in 1964 to coordinate security measures against North Korean spies, the
meeting came amid worries the communist neighbor may test-fire a ballistic
missile or trigger an armed clash along the western sea border.
North Korea declared all its military agreements with South Korea void last month
and threatened armed conflict along the Yellow Sea border known as the Northern
Limit Line (NLL) -- the scene of deadly naval clashes in 1999 and 2002.
The meeting "has presented missions to establish a defense posture against enemy
infiltration and provocation of a limited scale," the Ministry of National
Defense said in a statement.
The NLL was drawn by the U.S.-led United Nations command at the end of the
1950-53 Korean War that ended in a truce rather than a peace treaty, serving as a
de facto boundary.
Relations between the Koreas remain at one of their lowest levels in decades
after Lee took office early last year with a pledge to get tougher on Pyongyang.
North Korea has vehemently criticized the conservative South Korean leader,
accusing him of trying to undermine its regime by tying rapprochement to progress
in its nuclear dismantlement.
The meeting at the Cheong Wa Dae presidential complex also called for the
reinforcement of measures against non-military and supra-national threats, the
statement said.
samkim@yna.co.kr
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