ID :
84653
Thu, 10/15/2009 - 14:37
Auther :
Shortlink :
https://www.oananews.org//node/84653
The shortlink copeid
(LEAD) N. Korea warns of naval clash despite widening thaw with S. Korea
(ATTN: UPDATES throughout; RECASTS lead, headline; ADDS background)
By Sam Kim
SEOUL, Oct. 15 (Yonhap) -- Just a day after expressing regret for causing a flash
flood that killed six South Koreans last month, North Korea renewed its warning
Thursday of a naval clash off the west coast where skirmishes turned bloody twice
in the past.
Accusing South Korea of repeatedly sending battleships into its territorial
waters, North Korea said Seoul is deliberately trying to raise tension and dampen
thawing ties between the divided states.
"It is clear to everyone what consequences the third skirmish in the West Sea of
Korea will entail," the North's Navy said in a statement carried by the official
Korean Central News Agency.
Clashes in 1999 and 2002 led to the deaths of dozens of sailors on both sides,
South Korean military officials say, denying their Navy has intruded north of the
Northern Limit Line.
North Korea refuses to respect the 1953 truce line that was drawn by an American
general at the end of the three-year Korean War.
"The Navy of the Korea People's Army will not sit idly by while the South Korean
military authorities try to turn the phantom line into a maritime military
demarcation line," the North said. "They should bear in mind that warnings are
bound to be followed by actions."
The bellicose rhetoric came only a day after talks with South Korea in which the
North expressed regret over a flood that swept six South Korean campers to their
deaths on Sept. 6.
The unannounced pre-dawn surge at the Imjin river, which flows across the heavily
armed inter-Korean border, was triggered when the North opened a dam that it
later said had reached its maximum level.
It is rare for the North to express regret over its actions.
North Korea accepted South Korea's proposal to hold Wednesday's talks on joint
flood control after it test-fired a salvo of advanced short-range missiles off
the east coast on Monday -- its such first action in three months.
Relations between the Koreas have deteriorated since President Lee Myung-bak took
office in Seoul with a pledge to tie reconciliation to the North's efforts to
denuclearize.
North Korea threatened the safety of foreign vessels sailing near the de facto
Yellow Sea border early this year, calling Lee a traitor trying to topple the
regime in Pyongyang.
North Korea then conducted its second nuclear test in May, a month after it
launched a long-range rocket that neighbors believe was built with the technology
used in creating a ballistic missile.
But the country, slapped with tougher U.N. sanctions, has in recent months taken
a conciliatory gesture toward the outside world, agreeing to reunions of Korean
families separated by war and nudging the U.S. toward bilateral dialogue.
samkim@yna.co.kr
(END)
By Sam Kim
SEOUL, Oct. 15 (Yonhap) -- Just a day after expressing regret for causing a flash
flood that killed six South Koreans last month, North Korea renewed its warning
Thursday of a naval clash off the west coast where skirmishes turned bloody twice
in the past.
Accusing South Korea of repeatedly sending battleships into its territorial
waters, North Korea said Seoul is deliberately trying to raise tension and dampen
thawing ties between the divided states.
"It is clear to everyone what consequences the third skirmish in the West Sea of
Korea will entail," the North's Navy said in a statement carried by the official
Korean Central News Agency.
Clashes in 1999 and 2002 led to the deaths of dozens of sailors on both sides,
South Korean military officials say, denying their Navy has intruded north of the
Northern Limit Line.
North Korea refuses to respect the 1953 truce line that was drawn by an American
general at the end of the three-year Korean War.
"The Navy of the Korea People's Army will not sit idly by while the South Korean
military authorities try to turn the phantom line into a maritime military
demarcation line," the North said. "They should bear in mind that warnings are
bound to be followed by actions."
The bellicose rhetoric came only a day after talks with South Korea in which the
North expressed regret over a flood that swept six South Korean campers to their
deaths on Sept. 6.
The unannounced pre-dawn surge at the Imjin river, which flows across the heavily
armed inter-Korean border, was triggered when the North opened a dam that it
later said had reached its maximum level.
It is rare for the North to express regret over its actions.
North Korea accepted South Korea's proposal to hold Wednesday's talks on joint
flood control after it test-fired a salvo of advanced short-range missiles off
the east coast on Monday -- its such first action in three months.
Relations between the Koreas have deteriorated since President Lee Myung-bak took
office in Seoul with a pledge to tie reconciliation to the North's efforts to
denuclearize.
North Korea threatened the safety of foreign vessels sailing near the de facto
Yellow Sea border early this year, calling Lee a traitor trying to topple the
regime in Pyongyang.
North Korea then conducted its second nuclear test in May, a month after it
launched a long-range rocket that neighbors believe was built with the technology
used in creating a ballistic missile.
But the country, slapped with tougher U.N. sanctions, has in recent months taken
a conciliatory gesture toward the outside world, agreeing to reunions of Korean
families separated by war and nudging the U.S. toward bilateral dialogue.
samkim@yna.co.kr
(END)
