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(LEAD) Lee calls for strong border security amid tension with N. Korea
By Sam Kim
SEOUL, Nov. 16 (Yonhap) -- President Lee Myung-bak called Monday for "impregnable" defense of South Korea's border with North Korea as tension persisted near their maritime boundary where a naval skirmish erupted last week.
In a letter to his country's armed forces, carried by the state-run Korea Defense Daily, Lee also said South Korea should step up its contributions to global security and anti-terrorism efforts.
"Only when security is firm can our economy recover faster while peace, exchanges and reconciliation on the Korean Peninsula can speed up," he said. South and North Korea confront each other over a heavily armed border after the 1950-53 Korean War ended in a truce.
The navies of the two countries engaged for the first time in seven years last week near the Northern Limit Line (NLL) that remains one of the most volatile flash points in the region.
A North Korean patrol boat that had crossed the de facto border in the Yellow Sea retreated in flames after a brief gunfight in which South Korea suffered no casualties, officials here say.
"The truce line, the NLL in the east and the west, and our airspace must be defended impregnably and without an inch of breach," Lee said. "If an actual situation arises, our forces must respond according to operational rules and engagement codes and prevail."
Lee also said South Korea should initiate its own efforts to fight terrorism and help other nations to pursue democracy.
"We must also play an active role in making contributions in the areas of security, including anti-terrorism fights and global peace-building efforts," Lee said, citing international aid in paving South Korea's own road to democracy and a free market after war.
"To improve our own national interests and repay support we have received, we must create our own initiative to move forward," he said.
The letter, which commemorated the 45th anniversary of the South Korean military daily, came as the country plans to deploy troops to protect its civilians helping to reconstruct Afghanistan.
South Korea withdrew more than 200 military medics and engineers from Afghanistan in 2007 -- ending several years of deployment under a U.S.-led campaign against the Taliban -- after 23 South Korean Christian missionaries were held captive. Two of them were killed.
Sending troops to Afghanistan is a sensitive issue in South Korea, as many here view the conflict as an American one.
In 2004, South Korea sent thousands of troops to Iraq at the request of the U.S. The Zaytun unit was brought back home last year.
samkim@yna.co.kr
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