North Korea warns naval incursions could spark clash

Published 5:53 am Thursday, October 15, 2009

SEOUL, South Korea — North Korea warned South Korea today that a rash of “reckless” incursions at their disputed maritime border could spark a naval clash.

North Korea’s navy accused South Korean warships of routinely broaching its territory — 10 times on Monday alone — in the waters off the divided peninsula’s western coast.

“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 military said in a statement carried by the North’s official Korean Central News Agency.

The warning of a clash in the West Sea — the site of deadly naval skirmishes in 1999 and 2002 — comes despite signs of an improvement in relations between the two Koreas after more than a year of tensions.

South Korea’s navy expressed “very serious regret” over the North’s warning, saying it could spark unnecessary tension on the Korean peninsula.

It said in a statement that it was North Korean warships and fishing boats that have repeatedly violated the sea border in recent weeks, not South Korean ships.

The two Koreas technically remain in a state of war because their three-year conflict ended in a truce, not a peace treaty, in 1953. They are divided by a heavily fortified Demilitarized Zone.

North Korea, however, does not recognize the western maritime border drawn unilaterally by the United Nations, and it routinely issues warnings to South Korea about incursions across the military line.

Recently, there have been signs that relations might be improving. On Wednesday, North Korea made a rare apology to the South for releasing a massive amount of water from a dam near their border last month. Six South Koreans drowned in the flooding.

South Korea’s top official for inter-Korean relations, meanwhile, indicated that Seoul is prepared to offer North Korea food aid without conditions as a humanitarian gesture — an apparent softening of the government’s stance.

“We will provide limited humanitarian assistance to the most vulnerable groups in North Korea regardless of political and security circumstances,” Unification Minister Hyun In-taek said in a speech to the European Union Chamber of Commerce in Korea.

“We will do our part to end the suffering of our brothers in the North,” he said.

For a decade, South Korea was one of biggest donors to the impoverished North. But the flow of aid from Seoul stopped when President Lee Myung-bak took office last year, saying any help depended on North Korea’s denuclearization.

North Korea has faced chronic food shortages since flooding and mismanagement destroyed its economy in the mid-1990s. Famine is believed to have killed as many as 2 million people then.

Hyun did not specify a time frame or amount of possible aid to North Korea.

South Korea, meanwhile, wants to discuss the return of 560 soldiers who have been held by North Korea since the war and 504 civilians, mostly fishermen whose boats have been seized near the maritime border.

North Korea says the civilians voluntarily defected to the North and denies it has any South Korean prisoners of war.

South Korea also wants to stage more reunions of families divided by the war. On Friday, Red Cross officials are to meet in North Korea to discuss possible future reunions.