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N, S Korean naval officers clash over map of sea border

North and South Korean soldiers engaged in a minor scuffle during military talks yesterday over the two countries' long-running dispute on their sea border.

The talks at the truce village of Panmunjom inside the Demilitarized Zone came to a sudden halt when a North Korean officer sought to display a slide of a map with the North's proposal for a joint fishing area.

A South Korean naval officer rushed over and stopped the North Korean officer, triggering an argument, a pool report said. The North Korean officer pushed the South Korean officer, but he refused to budge and managed to stop the slide from being displayed.

The map showed the North's proposal for a joint fishing area south of the disputed western sea border, which was drawn unilaterally at the end of the 1950-1953 Korean War by the then commander of US-led UN forces.

North Korea does not recognize the boundary and demands that the line be redrawn further south, which Seoul has consistently rejected. The dispute led to bloody naval skirmishes in 1999 and 2002.

South Korean President Roh Moo-hyun and North Korean leader Kim Jong-il agreed at their October summit to create a joint fishing ground as a way to resolve the dispute. But the sides disagree over where the zone should be located.

This week's talks, which end today, are the latest in a series of contacts between the two sides since the October meeting between the leaders of the Koreas.

At the start of talks on Wednesday, Pyongyang accused Seoul of refusing to compromise on the border.

However, the two sides did agree on the first day of talks to simplify customs inspections and other border-crossing procedures for South Koreans heading into the North.

The North also agreed to allow South Koreans in two joint industrial and tourism ventures in the isolated country to use the Internet and wireless telephones beginning next year, the South's defense ministry said.
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