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.
The government is aiming to recruit 1,096 foreign English teachers and teaching assistants this year, the Ministry of Education said yesterday. The foreign teachers would work closely with elementary and junior-high instructors to create and teach courses, ministry official Tsai Yi-ching (蔡宜靜) said. Together, they would create an immersive language environment, helping to motivate students while enhancing the skills of local teachers, she said. The ministry has since 2021 been recruiting foreign teachers through the Taiwan Foreign English Teacher Program, which offers placement, salary, housing and other benefits to eligible foreign teachers. Two centers serving northern and southern Taiwan assist in recruiting and training
WIDE NET: Health officials said they are considering all possibilities, such as bongkrekic acid, while the city mayor said they have not ruled out the possibility of a malicious act of poisoning Two people who dined at a restaurant in Taipei’s Far Eastern Department Store Xinyi A13 last week have died, while four are in intensive care, the Taipei Department of Health said yesterday. All of the outlets of Malaysian vegetarian restaurant franchise Polam Kopitiam have been ordered to close pending an investigation after 11 people became ill due to suspected food poisoning, city officials told a news conference in Taipei. The first fatality, a 39-year-old man who ate at the restaurant on Friday last week, died of kidney failure two days later at the city’s Mackay Memorial Hospital. A 66-year-old man who dined
EYE ON STRAIT: The US spending bill ‘doubles security cooperation funding for Taiwan,’ while also seeking to counter the influence of China US President Joe Biden on Saturday signed into law a US$1.2 trillion spending package that includes US$300 million in foreign military financing to Taiwan, as well as funding for Taipei-Washington cooperative projects. The US Congress early on Saturday overwhelmingly passed the Further Consolidated Appropriations Act 2024 to avoid a partial shutdown and fund the government through September for a fiscal year that began six months ago. Under the package, the Defense Appropriations Act would provide a US$27 billion increase from the previous fiscal year to fund “critical national defense efforts, including countering the PRC [People’s Republic of China],” according to a summary
‘CARRIER KILLERS’: The Tuo Chiang-class corvettes’ stealth capability means they have a radar cross-section as small as the size of a fishing boat, an analyst said President Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) yesterday presided over a ceremony at Yilan County’s Suao Harbor (蘇澳港), where the navy took delivery of two indigenous Tuo Chiang-class corvettes. The corvettes, An Chiang (安江) and Wan Chiang (萬江), along with the introduction of the coast guard’s third and fourth 4,000-tonne cutters earlier this month, are a testament to Taiwan’s shipbuilding capability and signify the nation’s resolve to defend democracy and freedom, Tsai said. The vessels are also the last two of six Tuo Chiang-class corvettes ordered from Lungteh Shipbuilding Co (龍德造船) by the navy, Tsai said. The first Tuo Chiang-class vessel delivered was Ta Chiang (塔江)