A North Korean patrol boat was set ablaze after exchanging fire with South Korea’s navy yesterday, Seoul officials said, as cross-border tensions rose a week before a scheduled US presidential visit.
The two sides blamed each other for the clash, the first for seven years near the disputed Yellow Sea border.
South Korean President Lee Myung-bak called an emergency meeting of security ministers as Prime Minister Chung Un-chan accused the North of making a “direct attack” on a South Korean high-speed patrol craft.
“There was no damage on our side while a North Korean patrol boat engulfed in flame sailed back [across the border],” Chung told parliament.
He described the clash, which follows recent peace overtures from the North, as unplanned and urged the public to stay calm.
Some analysts, however, said Pyongyang may be sending US President Barack Obama a message, eight days before he arrives in South Korea as part of an Asian tour.
South Korean Defense Minister Kim Tae-young told parliament the North's boat sailed more than 1.6km south of the border and “I believe they clearly knew about the intrusion.”
The Joint Chiefs of Staff said in a statement that the South’s boat sent several warning signals after the North’s craft crossed the border, but the intruder held its course.
After the South fired warning shots, “the North’s side opened fire, directly aiming at our ship. Then our ship responded by firing back, forcing the North Korean boat to return to the north,” the statement said.
“We express our strong protest to North Korea and urge it to prevent a recurrence of such incidents,” Brigadier-General Lee Ki-Sik of the Joint Chiefs of Staff said.
North Korea's military, however, told its South Korean counterpart to apologize for a “grave armed provocation” and said Seoul's ships had opened fire while its craft was north of the border.
In a report on Pyongyang's official media, the North said its boat “lost no time to deal a prompt retaliatory blow at the provokers.”
“This might be an intentional clash aimed at heightening tension ahead of Obama’s trip,” Kim Yong-hyun, a professor at Dongguk University, told YTN television.
“I believe North Korea is trying to show Obama the volatility of the peninsula. North Korea has demanded a peace pact be signed with the US to replace the truce agreement,” he said.
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