Sunday, September 5, 1999
S. Korea warns NK not to cross sea border
By Jim Lea
Stripes Osan Bureau
South Korea put its forces in the Yellow Sea on higher alert Friday and warned North Korea not to violate the Northern Limit Line that has been the sea border between the two Koreas since 1953.
The actions came in reaction to a statement Thursday by the North Korean army general staff declaring the line invalid.
The statement said North Korean forces would only recognize a new demarcation line several miles south of the existing border. North Korea also threatened to use military force to protect the new line.
The South Korean National Security Council held an emergency session early Friday.
"We will never recognize the North-designated sea border," Joint Chiefs of Staff spokesman Hwang Dong-kyu said. "The NLL has existed for 46 years and still serves as a practical sea border.
"Our military will defend the line firmly. Any intrusion by North Korea will be considered a provocation and will not be tolerated."
He added that monitoring of North Korea has been increased, but "no unusual activity" had been noted.
A Defense Ministry spokes-man said Friday that there were no North Korean military vessels in the vicinity of the demarcation line in the Yellow Sea.
The U.S. State Department on Thursday urged North Korea to observe the line.
"We continue to hope that contacts through the general officer talks and between (South and North Korea) will result in an amicable solution that will avoid further incidents," State Department spokesman Philip Reeker said in a briefing.
"The Northern Limit Line was and still is demarcated by the U.N. Command to serve as a practical way to separate forces. We urge (North Korea) to recognize the practicality of the line by keeping its craft north of (it)."
Reeker declined to comment on whether the line issue would be discussed at talks scheduled to begin in Berlin on Tuesday between U.S. and North Korean officials.
He reiterated the U.N. Command's position that if the sea border is to be renegotiated, it should be done by officials of the two Koreas.
News reports speculate that the North has stepped up tensions over the sea border to give itself leverage in the Berlin talks.
The talks are aimed at keeping the North from launching a Taepodong-2 ballistic missile that U.S., Japanese and South Korean officials say Pyongyang is preparing to fire.
The North has confirmed it is making those preparations, but claims the missile will put a communications satellite into orbit.
Officials in Washington, Seoul and Tokyo claim the launch will be made to test the capability of an intercontinental ballistic missile. The Taepodong-2 is estimated to have a range that would allow it to hit targets anywhere in Japan and as far away as Alaska, Guam and Hawaii.
The current situation arose out of a 10-minute sea battle between South and North Korean military ships in the area of the Yellow Sea demarkation line on June 15. A North Korean torpedo boat was sunk and several others were damaged in the skirmish, the South Korean Defense Ministry said. Unconfirmed reports said 30 North Korean sailors were killed. Two South Korean patrol boats were damaged and seven sailors suffered minor wounds, the ministry said.
The incident was the most serious, but not the first, sea battle between the two Koreas since the Korean War.
Last year, a South Korean patrol boat and a North Korean infiltration craft fought a running gun battle after the latter was spotted in South Korean waters off the peninsula's southwest coast.
The North Korean craft was disabled by gunfire and sank near the peninsula's southeast corner.
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