S. Korea denies rumors of N. Korean moves near tense west sea border

By Sam Kim
SEOUL, Nov. 11 (Yonhap) -- South Korea on Wednesday denied unidentified rumors
that a pair of North Korean naval boats approached the western maritime border
where the navies of the two countries exchanged gunfire a day earlier.
"There is no particular situation developing. The waves are high, also forcing
fishing vessels to stay off the waters," Park Sung-woo, spokesman for the Joint
Chiefs of Staff, told reporters.
The rumors that two North Korean vessels closed in on the boundary early
Wednesday morning had circulated in South Korea's financial and government
circles.
On Tuesday, the navies of the Koreas engaged for the first time in seven years
near the border in the Yellow Sea. The North Korean patrol boat retreated in
flames while the South Korean side suffered no casualties, officials in Seoul
said. It was the third such skirmish south of the Northern Limit Line after 1999
and 2002.
"There has been no sign of retaliatory moves by the North," Kim Sung-hwan, a
South Korean presidential security aide, told Yonhap by telephone early
Wednesday. South Korean President Lee Myung-bak had expressed concern over
another possible attack by the North.
Won Tae-jae, South Korea's defense ministry spokesperson, said he could not
confirm media reports that one North Korean sailor had been killed and three
wounded in the battle that lasted two minutes.
"The reports carried material that cannot be confirmed," he said.
samkim@yna.co.kr
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