North Korea Threatens to Fire Into Disputed Waters

North Korea Threatens to Fire Into Disputed Waters
By CHOE SANG-HUN
Copyright by The New York Times
Published: December 21, 2009
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/12/22/world/asia/22korea.html?ref=global-home


SEOUL, South Korea — North Korea threatened Monday to fire shells into waters off the west coast of the divided Korean Peninsula, as a way to enforce its claims to an area currently held by the South.

Such an action would seriously worsen tensions along the disputed western sea border, the site of a naval skirmish between the two Koreas in November. South Korea immediately warned that it would “resolutely respond to any North Korean provocation.”

When the 1950-53 Korean War ended in a truce, rather than a permanent peace treaty, the warring militaries failed to agree upon a western sea border. The American-led United Nations forces unilaterally drew the “Northern Limit Line,” a border the South Korean and United States militaries have enforced since the end of the war.

But North Korea never accepted it, insisting on a border far south of the United Nations line that cuts deep into waters currently patrolled and fished by the South. The two Korean navies have clashed in the disputed waters in 1999, 2002 and in November, when navy patrol ships from the two Koreas exchanged fire in the area, leaving one North Korean sailor dead and three others wounded, according to the South.

North Korea regularly warns of possible conflict in the area to highlight its demand that the United States open talks to sign a peace treaty.

On Monday, the North Korean Navy declared that South Korean-controlled waters above the border the North has drawn for itself were a “peacetime naval firing zone of coastal and island artillery units.” The announcement deepened a long-held South Korean fear that the North Korean military might conduct firing exercises in the disputed waters to enforce its territorial claim.

All South Korean “fishing boats and warships should to take measures in that zone to protect themselves,” the North Korean naval command said in a statement, carried by the country’s official Korean Central News Agency.

North Korea accused the South of “reckless military provocations” in the area, citing South Korean warships operating and conducting military drills in waters it claims.

“We consider the North’s absurd argument regrettable,” the South Korean Navy said in a statement, vowing to defend the Northern Limit Line. “We express a very serious concern that the North’s threat could unnecessarily heighten tensions.”

North Korea’s threats came two weeks after Stephen W. Bosworth, President Obama’s special envoy, visited Pyongyang to try to persuade North Korea to return to six-nation talks on ending its nuclear weapons program. Both Washington and Pyongyang reported progress during Mr. Bosworth’s trip but said more talks were needed before being able to say whether the six-nation talks would resume.

North Korea often sends out mixed signals during important negotiations with the outside world, with its diplomats appealing for negotiations while its military issues threats.

Last week, North Korea accepted South Korean shipments of the antiviral drug Tamiflu to help the impoverished country fight an outbreak of swine flu.