North Korea may fire short-range missiles across its disputed sea border with South Korea to bolster its saber-rattling campaign against the Seoul government, media reports said yesterday.
Officials believe this is the likeliest form of provocation from Pyongyang, the Chosun Ilbo newspaper and Yonhap news agency reported.
The North, which is fiercely hostile to Seoul’s conservative government, announced last week it has scrapped all peace agreements with the South including one covering the Yellow Sea borderline.
PHOTO: AP
Its official media has repeatedly warned of a possible armed clash.
Pyongyang is also apparently preparing for a separate long-range missile test-launch, US and South Korean officials said this week. Washington has said any such launch would be “provocative.”
Chosun said Seoul security officials at a meeting last Saturday — the day the North scrapped its pacts — concluded that a missile launch over the Northern Limit Line (NLL) was the likeliest provocation.
The North refuses to recognize the NLL, which was drawn unilaterally by UN forces after the 1950-1953 war. The area was the scene of bloody naval clashes in 1999 and 2002.
“Pyongyang may use the logic that South Korean leaflets being sent to the North is on a par with North Korea firing missiles at the South,” Chosun quoted an official as saying.
Rights activists periodically use balloons to launch leaflets across the border fiercely criticizing the North’s regime.
They plan another launch to mark North Korean leader Kim Jong-il’s birthday on Feb. 16, and Chosun said the North could retaliate with some kind of military action.
The North used its west coast naval base on Chodo island to test-fire missiles into its own waters last October. The sea border is in range of Chodo.
Chosun quoted an unidentified intelligence officer as saying the North may not provoke a naval skirmish because the South’s navy is better-armed.
Yonhap said the apparent preparations for a long-range missile launch — in full view of satellite TV cameras — could be aimed at distracting attention from planned launches across the sea border.
“We are intensifying our monitoring of the west coast because we believe that is where North Korea could fire short-range missiles in a surprise move,” a defense official told the agency.
“Missiles could be launched near the NLL because that is the area North Korea wants to make a statement on,” said Paik Hak-soon of the Sejong Institute think tank.
Archeologists in Peru on Thursday said they found the 5,000-year-old remains of a noblewoman at the sacred city of Caral, revealing the important role played by women in the oldest center of civilization in the Americas. “What has been discovered corresponds to a woman who apparently had elevated status, an elite woman,” archeologist David Palomino said. The mummy was found in Aspero, a sacred site within the city of Caral that was a garbage dump for more than 30 years until becoming an archeological site in the 1990s. Palomino said the carefully preserved remains, dating to 3,000BC, contained skin, part of the
‘WATER WARFARE’: A Pakistani official called India’s suspension of a 65-year-old treaty on the sharing of waters from the Indus River ‘a cowardly, illegal move’ Pakistan yesterday canceled visas for Indian nationals, closed its airspace for all Indian-owned or operated airlines, and suspended all trade with India, including to and from any third country. The retaliatory measures follow India’s decision to suspend visas for Pakistani nationals in the aftermath of a deadly attack by shooters in Kashmir that killed 26 people, mostly tourists. The rare attack on civilians shocked and outraged India and prompted calls for action against their country’s archenemy, Pakistan. New Delhi did not publicly produce evidence connecting the attack to its neighbor, but said it had “cross-border” links to Pakistan. Pakistan denied any connection to
TRUMP EFFECT: The win capped one of the most dramatic turnarounds in Canadian political history after the Conservatives had led the Liberals by more than 20 points Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney yesterday pledged to win US President Donald Trump’s trade war after winning Canada’s election and leading his Liberal Party to another term in power. Following a campaign dominated by Trump’s tariffs and annexation threats, Carney promised to chart “a new path forward” in a world “fundamentally changed” by a US that is newly hostile to free trade. “We are over the shock of the American betrayal, but we should never forget the lessons,” said Carney, who led the central banks of Canada and the UK before entering politics earlier this year. “We will win this trade war and
Armed with 4,000 eggs and a truckload of sugar and cream, French pastry chefs on Wednesday completed a 121.8m-long strawberry cake that they have claimed is the world’s longest ever made. Youssef El Gatou brought together 20 chefs to make the 1.2 tonne masterpiece that took a week to complete and was set out on tables in an ice rink in the Paris suburb town of Argenteuil for residents to inspect. The effort overtook a 100.48m-long strawberry cake made in the Italian town of San Mauro Torinese in 2019. El Gatou’s cake also used 350kg of strawberries, 150kg of sugar and 415kg of
RSS