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Pacific Stars And Stripes
Sept. 3, 1999
Pg. 3

By Jim Lea, Stripes Osan Bureau Chief

A meeting between North Korean army and U.N. Command generals at Panmunjom on Tuesday ended with no progress on the disputed sea border between South and North Korea.

During the talks, the sixth such meeting since June, Pyongyang's representatives threatened to take "decisive and resolute" action.

The sea border, called the Northern Limit Line, was the focal point of a June 15 battle in the Yellow Sea between South and North Korean navy ships. The line is not mentioned in the armistice that ended battlefield hostilities in the Korean War. It was unilaterally established by the U.N. Command after the cease-fire was signed.

Since the Yellow Sea incident, North Korea has insisted that the United States enter negotiations to revise the armistice to designate a clearly defined Maritime Military Demarcation Line. Pyongyang wants to move the line from its present position about 65 miles northwest of Seoul to deep inside what is considered South Korean territorial waters.

The North's call for negotiations with the United States is in line with its long-held contention that the U.N. Command is an illegal entity, and that South Korea is a U.S. puppet. For years, Pyongyang has contended it fought the Korean War with the United States, and the United States is its major opponent on the peninsula today.

During Tuesday's 45-minute meeting, U.N. Command officials reiterated that designating the sea border is a matter that should be negotiated by the two Koreas in the Military Committee established in the 1991 Basic Agreement between Seoul and Pyongyang, a command statement said.

Although that agreement was initialed by both Koreas, it has never been fully implemented.

Col. David Apt, a command spokesman, said the meeting ended with the North Korean delegation "repeating (its) threat to take 'resolute and decisive measures' " if the command does not support bilateral talks.