DATE=9/3/1999 TYPE=CORRESPONDENT REPORT TITLE=KOREAS / BORDER (L-ONLY) NUMBER=2-253407 BYLINE=HYUN-SUNG KHANG DATELINE=SEOUL CONTENT= VOICED AT: INTRO: South Korea has pledged to defend a disputed sea border with neighboring North Korea. The announcement was made following an emergency National Security Council meeting, prompted by the North's declaration that the maritime line, is invalid. As Hyun-Sung Khang reports from the South Korean capital, Seoul, the United States has urged North Korea to respect the border separating the two countries' maritime zones. TEXT: At the center of the maritime dispute between North and South Korea is the so-called "Northern Limit Line". It bisects the Yellow Sea, to the West of the Korean peninsula, dividing the waters of the two countries. The reclusive North has declared the border invalid, but Seoul has responded by saying that it will defend the sea line. At an emergency National Security Council meeting Friday, South Korean cabinet ministers discussed measures to counter the North's declaration. The council, including the Unification Minister, the Foreign Affairs minister and the Defense Minister, says until a new demarcation line is agreed upon by the two countries, Seoul will maintain the current border. It also rejected an alternative sea line set unilaterally by Pyongyang on Thursday. Seoul officials say the North's declared new borderline would expand its territory and is well south of five small islands controlled by South Korea in the Yellow Sea. The United States, has also urged the North to adhere to the existing border. A State Department spokesman said the boundary has been an effective means of preventing military tension between the armed forces of the two countries for 46 years. North Korea has threatened to use what it described as "various means and methods" to defend its new border, raising fears of a renewed naval clash. Two months ago, a North Korean patrol boat was sunk and some 30 North Korean sailors killed in a skirmish with boats from the South. /// OPT /// North and South Korea have remained technically at war since the conflict of 1950-53, which ended in an armed truce and not a peace agreement. The naval clash in June was one of the worst military exchanges since the end of the Korean War. The issue was raised at a failed meeting between the US-led United Nations Command and North Korea at the demilitarized border village of Panmunjom on Wednesday. North Korea says that the dispute should be discussed bilaterally with the United States, while the UN command insists that it be negotiated between the two Koreas. ///END OPT /// Analysts suggest that Pyongyang is using the sea dispute as a negotiating tactic ahead of a meeting between North Korea and the United States which will take place in Berlin, later this month. (SIGNED) NEB/HSK/FC 03-Sep-1999 03:34 AM LOC (03-Sep-1999 0734 UTC) NNNN Source: Voice of America .
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