YONHAP NEWS

(2nd LD) Tension high as Koreas bolster watch after naval skirmish

By Sam Kim
SEOUL, Nov. 11 (Yonhap) -- Tension ran high on the divided Korean Peninsula on Wednesday as the armed forces of South and North Korea ratcheted up their watch over each other a day after exchanging gunfire on their western sea border.

   No South Korean casualties were reported Tuesday, while a North Korean patrol boat fled in flames after crossing the Yellow Sea border and engaging in a two-minute battle, officials here said.

   South Korean President Lee Myung-bak expressed concern over a possible reprisal by the North, while Defense Minister Kim Tae-young refused to confirm reports that one North Korean sailor was killed and three others wounded in the skirmish.

   South Korean Navy Chief of Staff Jung Ok-keun said in a speech Wednesday that his forces are on "thorough alert in preparation for additional provocations by the North."

   "Our warship thrashed a North Korean patrol boat and defended the Northern Limit Line," or NLL, which has served as a de facto border since the 1950-53 Korean War ended in a truce, Jung said.

   In the two previous skirmishes near the boundary in 1999 and 2002, six South Korean sailors were killed while the North is believed to have lost dozens of troops.

   A South Korean defense official, asking for anonymity, said all Army division and brigade commanders have been summoned to their posts, while the Navy has added two 1,800-ton patrol boats to the area.

   Park Sung-woo, spokesman for the Joint Chiefs of Staff, said the North Korean military has also ramped up its guard along the NLL, which Pyongyang disputes because it was drawn by the commander of U.N. Forces that fought on the South Korean side in the war.

   Park also denied rumors that a pair of North Korean naval boats approached the NLL early Wednesday, stressing there was "no particular situation developing" in the area.

   The clash, which the North claims erupted after South Korea sent a group of warships to attack its boat on routine patrol, came just a week ahead of an Asian trip by U.S. President Barack Obama.

   According to defense ministry officials, the number of NLL violations by North Korean patrol boats so far this year totals 23, up sharply from seven in 2008.

   Separately, North Korean fishing vessels have also violated the NLL 25 times this year, compared with 11 last year, said the officials.

   Analysts here said North Korea appears to be raising tension in an effort to strengthen its bargaining power as it moves to widen talks with the United States on its nuclear weapons program.

   Speaking in Singapore, U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said her government will still send an envoy to Pyongyang to bring it back to denuclearization talks, according to news reports.

   Analysts also said North Korea could be sending a message to the South Korean government as the sides recover from more than a year of frosty relations compounded by Pyongyang's nuclear test in May.

   The South Korean presidential office, Cheong Wa Dae, said Wednesday it does not wish to see the thawing ties to be hurt by the clash on Tuesday.

   "The government does not want the inter-Korean relationship deteriorating due to this incident," Kim Eun-hye, a spokesperson, said in a briefing.

   But several private South Korean organizations operating in North Korea were already suspending or delaying activities, including a sand-mining firm that temporarily recalled its ship from the waters off the North's west coast, according to the Unification Ministry.

   Several staff from South Korea's UNESCO branch also postponed a trip to Pyongyang, ministry spokesperson Chun Hae-sung said, stressing the government will keep its cross-border projects intact.

   "The government has not taken any measures in relation to non-governmental visits to North Korea," Chun said, adding hundreds of daily commuters were set to cross the land border to a joint industrial park in the North's border town of Kaesong.

   South Korea's prime minister, Chung Un-chan, told lawmakers on Tuesday that the clash was "accidental." But Defense Minister Kim said he remained unclear about the North Korean motive.

   Kim said the attack may have been planned considering that the North Korean boat retained communications with its command during the crossing.

   "But on the other hand, it is not easy to conclude that a provocation would be conducted with only one ship," he said in a parliamentary hearing.

   On Wednesday, a lawmaker quoted South Korea's intelligence authorities as telling a parliamentary committee that they believe the attack is believed to serve "a limited purpose."

   "There was also a view that it was intended to test how our military would respond in the event of an NLL violation," the lawmaker told Yonhap by phone, declining to be named.

   samkim@yna.co.kr
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