Print

Mail

wiki links

Pyongyang accuses Seoul of intrusion

North Korea yesterday accused the South of intruding into its territorial waters, further raising tension on the peninsula already heightened by the North’s launch this week of a barrage of short-range missiles.

The allegations and a threat to attack the South’s ships add a new facet to mixed messages coming out of the North in recent days. These also include moves to defuse tensions by reaching out to foes South Korea and the US for discussions.

“The reckless military provocations by warships of the South Korean navy have created such a serious situation that a naval clash may break out between the two sides in these waters,” the North’s KCNA news agency quoted a military official as saying.

Analysts said the North may be trying to show that it was willing to raise the stakes to increase its bargaining leverage with Seoul and regional powers.

“They don’t want to come to the negotiating table looking weak,” said Cho Myung-chul, a former academic in North Korea who defected to the South and is now an analyst at the Korea Institute for International Economic Policy.

North and South Korea have fought two deadly naval battles in disputed waters off the west coast of the peninsula in the past 10 years.

The North has dismissed as invalid a sea border called the Northern Limit Line (NLL), set unilaterally by US-led UN forces at the end of the 1950-1953 Korean War.

An official with the South’s joint chiefs of staff said the North’s charge was groundless and it was accusing the South’s vessels of crossing a line in the sea that Seoul does not observe. That line was set by Pyongyang, well south of the NLL.

Investors in Asia’s fourth-largest economy have grown used to the North’s military moves that included the launch of five short range missiles on Monday and reports in South Korean media that the hermit state may soon shoot off more rockets.

A day before issuing the threat to attack the South’s ships, North Korea made a rare statement of contrition in talks with the South when it expressed regret over releasing water from a dam last month on a river that flows to the South. That caused a flood that killed six southerners.

North Korean leader Kim Jong-il last week said Pyongyang was ready to return to dormant six-country talks on ending its nuclear arms programme, though he called for direct discussions with the US before his country could head back.

In related news, South Korea has deployed new longer-range cruise missiles that could reach not only North Korea but also parts of China and Japan, Munhwa Ilbo newspaper said yesterday.

It said Seoul began mass-producing the Hyunmu-3 missiles with a range of 1,000km early this year.

The paper, quoting US and South Korean government sources, said the missile was developed in 2006 and tested for two years before being deployed.

“Its development and deployment had been kept confidential because Japan, China and other neighboring nations could react sensitively,” the source said.

The Defense Acquisition Program Administration (DAPA) would neither confirm nor deny the Munhwa report. The defense ministry declined to comment.

South Korea has pushed for longer-range weaponry to counter a threat from hundreds of North Korean ballistic missiles.

Under an agreement with the US, which stations 28,500 troops in South Korea and guarantees a nuclear “umbrella” in case of war, Seoul limits its ballistic missiles to a maximum range of 300km.

But Seoul officials say the agreement does not apply to cruise missiles which fly at moderate speed and at low altitude, following the terrain.

South Korea’s first Aegis-equipped destroyer, the King Sejong, is already equipped with cruise missiles. Munhwa said these have a range of 500 km.

The paper said development of a 1,500km cruise missile is under way.
This story has been viewed 833 times.