N. Korea may try to provoke S. Korea in unexpected manner: S. Korean commander

By Sam Kim
SEOUL, Feb. 19 (Yonhap) -- North Korea may try to jolt its enemies with
unexpected provocations along its heavily armed border with South Korea, the
South's chairman of general staff said Thursday.
North Korea recently stepped up its bitter rhetoric against South Korea and
warned of an armed clash near the U.N.-drawn Northern Limit Line (NLL) in the
Yellow Sea -- the site of bloody naval clashes in 1999 and 2002.
Pyongyang has also nullified all its military agreements with Seoul while
apparently moving forward with steps to test-fire a long-range missile
technically capable of reaching the western United States.
"We expect various scenarios of North Korean provocation, including at the NLL,"
Kim Tae-young, chairman of the South Korean Joint Chiefs of Staff, said at a
parliamentary hearing, citing a Chinese strategy that calls for attack after
distracting enemy attention.
Kim expressed confidence that South Korea and the U.S. are prepared for any
contingency, saying the two sides are meeting daily "at daybreak" to share and
assess their intelligence.
About 28,500 U.S. troops are stationed in South Korea as a deterrent against the
North, a legacy of the 1950-53 Korean War that ended in a truce rather than a
peace treaty.
"We're repeatedly examining our detailed judgments of the state of the enemy," he
said.
The NLL was unilaterally drawn by the U.S.-led U.N. Command at the end of the
Korean War.
samkim@yna.co.kr
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