South Korea accused North Korea yesterday of heightening tensions on the peninsula by sending warships along a disputed border in the Yellow Sea.
The protest came a day after the North denounced the South for the same reason.
The South's navy command warned it was ready to "sternly deal with any provocation" off the west coast, the scene of bloody clashes in recent years.
"We strongly urge North Korea to immediately stop all activities that may raise tensions," it said in a statement.
The North, in a statement carried by official media on Tuesday, said the "South Korean warmongers' frantic military provocations have been creating a touch-and-go situation in which fresh armed conflicts could occur at any time."
South Korea rejected the North's accusations -- the third time Pyongyang has made such claims in the past month.
"We express our serious concern over a provocative statement. It was not our side but North Korean ships that have violated the Northern Limit Line," the South's navy command said.
North Korean patrol boats violated the sea border four times this year, including the latest incident last week, it said.
The North has insisted on redrawing the line marked by UN forces at the end of the 1950 to 1953 Korean War. Seoul has agreed to discuss the issue at high-level military talks but demands that the maritime border be respected.
Separately, South Korea said yesterday that efforts to solve a banking dispute blocking North Korea's nuclear disarmament were in a "final stage" but a pro-Pyongyang newspaper sounded a note of caution.
"The BDA [Banco Delta Asia] issue ... is in a final stage of settlement as relevant nations have taken various measures," South Korean Foreign Minister Song Min-soon told reporters without giving a timeframe.
The dispute over North Korean funds, which had been frozen in a Macau bank since 2005 at US instigation, has for months blocked any progress on a nuclear disarmament deal. The North has always insisted on getting its US$25 million back before starting to honor the Feb. 13 pact.
"It is the DPRK's [Democratic People's Republic of Korea] consistent demand that the United States allow free transmission of money as before, through the settlement of the BDA issue," said the Choson Sinbo, a newspaper published by pro-Pyongyang ethnic Korean residents in Japan, on its Web site yesterday.
The paper, which usually reflects official thinking, said there appeared "no room for compromise or concession."
SEEKING CHANGE: A hospital worker said she did not vote in previous elections, but ‘now I can see that maybe my vote can change the system and the country’ Voting closed yesterday across the Solomon Islands in the south Pacific nation’s first general election since the government switched diplomatic allegiance from Taiwan to Beijing and struck a secret security pact that has raised fears of the Chinese navy gaining a foothold in the region. The Solomon Islands’ closer relationship with China and a troubled domestic economy weighed on voters’ minds as they cast their ballots. As many as 420,000 registered voters had their say across 50 national seats. For the first time, the national vote also coincided with elections for eight of the 10 local governments. Esther Maeluma cast her vote in the
Nearly half of China’s major cities are suffering “moderate to severe” levels of subsidence, putting millions of people at risk of flooding, especially as sea levels rise, according to a study of nationwide satellite data released yesterday. The authors of the paper, published by the journal Science, found that 45 percent of China’s urban land was sinking faster than 3mm per year, with 16 percent at more than 10mm per year, driven not only by declining water tables, but also the sheer weight of the built environment. With China’s urban population already in excess of 900 million people, “even a small portion
UNSETTLING IMAGES: The scene took place in front of TV crews covering the Trump trial, with a CNN anchor calling it an ‘emotional and unbelievably disturbing moment’ A man who doused himself in an accelerant and set himself on fire outside the courthouse where former US president Donald Trump is on trial has died, police said yesterday. The New York City Police Department (NYPD) said the man was declared dead by staff at an area hospital. The man was in Collect Pond Park at about 1:30pm on Friday when he took out pamphlets espousing conspiracy theories, tossed them around, then doused himself in an accelerant and set himself on fire, officials and witnesses said. A large number of police officers were nearby when it happened. Some officers and bystanders rushed
HYPOCRISY? The Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs yesterday asked whether Biden was talking about China or the US when he used the word ‘xenophobic’ US President Joe Biden on Wednesday called for a hike in steel tariffs on China, accusing Beijing of cheating as he spoke at a campaign event in Pennsylvania. Biden accused China of xenophobia, too, in a speech to union members in Pittsburgh. “They’re not competing, they’re cheating. They’re cheating and we’ve seen the damage here in America,” Biden said. Chinese steel companies “don’t need to worry about making a profit because the Chinese government is subsidizing them so heavily,” he said. Biden said he had called for the US Trade Representative to triple the tariff rates for Chinese steel and aluminum if Beijing was