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North
and South Korea Trade Accusations over Yellow Sea
Battle
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| South Koreans
watch a TV broadcast on the clash with the North. |
SEOUL,
June 29 (IslamOnline & News Agencies) - North Korea Saturday
blamed South Korea for provoking a sea battle in the Yellow Sea by
attacking its navy boat first. However, South Korean President Kim
Dae-Jung said he "can never tolerate"
North Korea
's act after a gun battle between the two
Koreas
in the
Yellow Sea
.
The
North's official Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) said South Korea
committed "such a grave provocation as firing bullets and shells
at patrol boats of (North Korea's) navy on routine coastal guard
duty", reported Agence France-Presse (AFP).
It
quoted a military source as saying: "Warships of the South Korean
navy fired hundreds of bullets and shells at our patrol boats when
they moved out to stop those warships intruding deep into our
territorial waters".
In
retaliation, North Korean warships were "compelled to take a
self-defensive step," sparking an exchange of fire between the
two sides, KCNA said.
The
battle caused "losses," the source said without disclosing
details.
The
incident was a premeditated military provocation on the part of the
South Korean military from a to z," the source said.
He
accused
South Korea
of seeking to "invent any shocking incident in the West sea, thus
aggravating the inter-Korean relations that have been in the process
of detente."
"They
can never flee from the responsibility for the armed provocations.
They should stop acting rashly, mindful of the grave consequences to
be entailed by such provocations," he added.
The
South Koreans, however, seemed to disagree with the communist North in
evaluating what analysts called “inevitable confrontation”, vowing
to retaliate and “never tolerate” the assault.
President
Kim defined the incident as the North's military provocation,
presidential security aide Yim Sung-Joon said.
"This
is a military provocative act of raising tension on the Korean
peninsula and we can never tolerate this," Kim told a national
security council meeting after the naval clash, Yim said.
At
the same time, the South's Defense Ministry issued a statement
denouncing and holding the North responsible for the incident.
"We
strongly demand that the North apologize, punish those responsible and
prevent the recurrence of the incident," ministry spokesman Hwang
Eui-Don said in the official statement.
"All
responsibility for the incident goes wholly to
North Korea
."
According
to AFP, the naval battle between North and
South Korea
off the peninsula's western coast on Saturday was an incident waiting
to happen, analysts said Saturday.
Five
South Korean soldiers were killed or missing and 22 others were
injured in a clash between South Korean and North Korean navy vessels
off the western coast on Saturday, the South Korean Defense Ministry
said.
"Four
soldiers were killed, one missing and one of our ships was sunk,"
Lietenant General Lee Sang-Hee, head of the operation headquarters of
the Joint Chief of Staff, told reporters. He said 22 others were
injured, some of them seriously.
"A
North Korean patrol boat, trailing plumes of smoke, was towed back to
the North," he added.
The
exchange, which occurred the day before the final of the football
World Cup co-hosted by
South Korea
and
Japan
, was the first in three years between the two neighbors.
The
clash occurred in the rich fishing field around the Yeonpyeong island
when two North Korean patrol boats crossed the inter-Korean sea
border. Four South Korean patrol boats then scrambled to the scene.
"At
10:25 am
(0125 GMT), one of the patrol boats opened fire and our side returned
fire immediately," Lee said.
The
exchanges of fire lasted 20 minutes before the North Korean patrol
boats returned to the North.
Lee
said the clash must have been intended by the northern side, noting
that the North's patrol boats had crossed the sea border while some 30
North Korean fishing boats had remained north of the maritime
frontier.
South
Korean vessels repeatedly warned through loudspeakers that the North
Korean boats crossed the border and urged them to turn back before one
of the two North Korean boats opened fire, Lee said.
"It
is believed that the first shot hit the cabin of one of our two ships.
The other ship of ours returned fire immediately," he said,
adding the North Korean patrol boat was about 500 meters (yards) off
the South's vessels.
He
said the North Korean vessel apparently used a 85-milimetre canon, its
strongest weapon aboard. The 156-tonne South Korean patrol boat went
down as she was being towed to the South.]
Analysts
said the clash appeared to be a revenge attack by the North Korean
navy.
In
June 1999, a North Korean patrol boat was sunk by the South's navy in
an exchange of fire near the area after it crossed the border while
escorting North Korean fishing boats.
Scores
of North Korean soldiers were believed to have been killed and nine
South Korean sailors were injured in the 1999 clash.
Meanwhile,
South Korean navy ships led by a 1,200-ton frigate strengthened their
surveillance in the waters.
In
a separately related development, The United Nations Command (UNC)
proposed military talks with
North Korea
Saturday as the country, dubbed by U.S. President George W. Bush as
part of his famous “axis of evil”, blamed
South Korea
for provoking the sea battle.
The
UNC, led by
U.S.
troops, sent a telephone message calling for military talks at the
truce
village
of
Panjumjom
at
6:00 pm
(0900 GMT) Saturday,
U.S.
military authorities said.
The
UNC, helped by neutral nations, monitors a truce signed at the end of
the Korean War in 1953. The
United States
fought with
South Korea
under a UN flag after communist troops invaded
South Korea
in 1950, triggering the devastating three-year war which left an
estimated three million dead.
Fighting
ended in July 1953 with an armistice, but no peace treaty has ever
been signed, leaving the rival
Koreas
in a state of permanent war.
"There
has been no response yet from the North Korean side," a
U.S.
military spokesman told AFP, adding the message was sent by U.S. Air
Force Major General James Soligan to his North Korean counterpart,
Colonel General Ri Chan-Bok.
The
sea battle prompted a high alert along the demilitarized zone which
divides the Korean peninsula.
U.S.
officials said some 37,000
U.S.
troops stationed in
South Korea
are also maintaining a high state of alert.
"We
have been on a high state of vigilance," the
U.S.
spokesman said.
The
United States
put
North Korea
under tight surveillance by mobilizing surveillance planes and
satellites since the one-month World Cup tournament began on May 31.
North Korea
never established relations with the
United States
and ties were strained again after Bush said the communist state was
part of "an axis of evil" spreading weapons of mass
destruction.
The
U.S.
, however, proposed sending a delegation led by Assistant Secretary of
State for East Asian and Pacific Affairs James Kelly to
North Korea
next month to resume high-level talks,
U.S.
officials said Friday.
The
proposal to send Kelly to
Pyongyang
in mid-July as the head of a delegation made up of officials from the
White House, Pentagon and State Department was made during a
"constructive" meeting between a
U.S.
diplomat and North Korean representatives on Thursday in
New York
, the officials said.
"The
idea is that Kelly would head an inter-agency delegation," a
senior State Department official said, adding that if the North
Koreans agree, another member of the team could be the
U.S.
special envoy for North Korea, Jack Pritchard.
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