North and South Korea Skirmish

[azurehook.livejournal.com]

A badly damaged North Korean patrol ship retreated in flames Tuesday after a skirmish with a South Korean naval vessel along their disputed western coast, the first such clash in seven years, South Korean officials said.

There were no South Korean casualties, the country's Joint Chiefs of Staff said in a statement, and it was not immediately clear if there were any casualties on the North Korean side. Each side blamed the other for violating the sea border.

The exchange of fire occurred as U.S. officials said President Barack Obama has decided to send a special envoy to Pyongyang for rare direct talks on the communist country's nuclear weapons program. No date has been set but it would be the first one-on-one talks since Obama took office in January. Obama is due in Seoul next week.

Navies of 2 Koreas Exchange Fire Near Border

''It's a regrettable incident,'' South Korean Commodore Lee Ki-sik told reporters in Seoul. ''We are sternly protesting to North Korea and urging it to prevent the recurrence of similar incidents.''

North Korea's military issued a statement blaming South Korea for the ''grave armed provocation,'' saying its ships crossed into North Korean territory.

The North claimed that a group of South Korean warships opened fire but fled after the North's patrol boat dealt ''a prompt retaliatory blow.'' The statement, carried on the official Korean Central News Agency, said the South should apologize.

President Lee Myung-bak, who convened an emergency security meeting, ordered the South's defense minister to strengthen military readiness.

South Korea's Joint Chiefs of Staff said in a statement that a North Korean patrol boat crossed the disputed western sea border about 11:27 a.m. (0227 GMT), drawing warning shots from a South Korean navy vessel. The North Korean boat then opened fire and the South's ship returned fire before the North's vessel sailed back toward its waters, the statement said.

The clash occurred near the South-held island of Daecheong, about 120 nautical miles (220 kilometers) off the port city of Incheon, west of Seoul, the statement said.

The North Korean ship was seriously damaged in the skirmish, a Joint Chiefs of Staff officer said on condition of anonymity, citing department policy. Prime Minister Chung Un-chan told lawmakers the ship was on fire when it fled north.

Lee, the commodore, said the shooting lasted for about two minutes, during which the North Korean ship fired about 50 rounds at the South Korean vessel, about two miles (3.2 kilometers) away. He said the South Korean ship was lightly damaged.

Lee said several Chinese fishing boats were operating in the area at the time of clash, but they were undamaged. Chung, the prime minister, described the clash as ''accidental,'' telling lawmakers that two North Korean ships crossed into South Korean waters in an attempt to clamp down on Chinese fishing.

Lee, however, said the South Korean military was investigating if the North's alleged violation was deliberate.

The Koreas regularly accuse each other of straying into their respective territories. South Korea's military said that North Korean ships violated the sea border on 22 occasions this year.

The two sides have fought deadly skirmishes along the western sea border in 1999 and 2002.

No South Korean sailors were killed in 1999, but six South Korean sailors died in 2002, according to the South Korean navy. It said exact North Korean causalities remain unclear.

Baek Seung-joo, a North Korea expert at Seoul's state-run Korea Institute for Defense Analyses, said the clash would not have a big impact on inter-Korean relations.

He said the Koreas held a landmark summit in 2000 and the North sent a cheering squad to the South for the Asian Games in 2002. Both events took place after the separate clashes in 1999 and 2002.

''It was an intentional provocation by North Korea,'' Baek said, noting that Pyongyang appears to want to create tensions and use them for domestic political consumption.

The two Koreas have yet to agree on their sea border more than 50 years after the end of their 1950-53 Korean War, which ended in an armistice and not a permanent peace treaty. Instead, they rely on a line that the then-commander of U.N. forces, which fought for the South, drew unilaterally at the end of the conflict.

North Korea last month accused South Korean warships of broaching its territory in waters off the west coast and warned of a clash in the zone, which is a rich crab fishing area.

The latest conflict comes after North Korea has reached out to Seoul and Washington following months of tension over its nuclear and missile programs.

North Korea launched a long-range rocket in April and carried out its second underground nuclear test in May. But it subsequently released South Korean and U.S. detainees, agreed to resume joint projects with South Korea and offered direct talks with Washington.

Two administration officials said Monday in Washington that Obama has decided, after months of deliberation, to send a special envoy to Pyongyang for direct talks on nuclear issues.

Obama will send envoy Stephen Bosworth, although no date for his trip has been set, the officials said. The officials discussed the matter on condition of anonymity because the decision has not been publicly announced.

Hundreds of thousands of combat-ready troops on both sides face across the 155-mile-long (248-kilometers-long) land border that is also strewn with land mines and tank traps and laced with barbed wire. About 28,500 U.S. troops are stationed in South Korea to deter a potential North Korean aggression.

Despite Tuesday's clash, a joint industrial complex in the North Korean border town of Kaesong operated as usual, said South Korean Unification Ministry spokesman Chun Hae-sung. He said, however, that the South asked its citizens working in the North to be cautious.

The site, which combines South Korean capital and technology with cheap North Korean labor, is the most prominent symbol of inter-Korean cooperation. More than 100 South Korean firms employ thousands of North Koreans to manufacture products.

Source: NY Times

Comments

[xshinebrighterx.livejournal.com]

I hope they don't show this in the mexican news.
I really don't want my parents to worry about a war again

[fuuism.livejournal.com]

What awkward formatting. *tries to read*

[bystander.livejournal.com]

mte.

[sseoli-sseoli.livejournal.com]

[miyavi-type.livejournal.com]

America, stay out of it.

And for a country which hopes one day for a reunited Korea, having such hostilities is really a no go.

[vanilla-09.livejournal.com]

Word on America.

[booksandsarcasm.livejournal.com]

xDD You know, N. Korea might be doing this for attention so that cross nation talks would continue right? They seem to have a habit of pulling stupid crap to get people to pay attention to them. So what I don't get is how the U.S. is obligated to get involved when other nations ask it to but to stfu otherwise.

[shopaholism.livejournal.com]

lol what's new?

glad to see Obama getting out there diplomatically.

[legens-legentis.livejournal.com]

I really hope this doesn't escalate into something more. I have a friend who's going into the Korean Army soon, and I don't want him to end up getting killed.

[booksandsarcasm.livejournal.com]

DDDDx You just reminded me of Tukutz. TT_________TT BRB BUYING SOME WORRY BEADS.

[pixifaerithingy.livejournal.com]

Oh good I have a report on North/South hostilities on Thursday, I can use this. But plz no more hostilities you guys, my boy is still in the ROK reserves D:

Hotel of Doom

[shopaholism.livejournal.com]

okay this is sort of not relevant to the article at all, but I am still loling over the news that Kim Jong Il is continuing to build the Ryugyong Hotel, basically an evil lair dubbed by some to be "the worst building in the history of mankind":

Re: Hotel of Doom

[wend1zzle.livejournal.com]

lol is that the hotel? looks like the mountain of doom. or the mountain from LOTR.

Re: Hotel of Doom

[rinn1e.livejournal.com]

That shit is not even pretty.


Waste of utilities.

Re: Hotel of Doom

[chromakey-dream.livejournal.com]

Maybe he's planning to shoot a giant laser at the moon and hold the earth ransom for... ONE MILLION DOLLARS!

Re: Hotel of Doom

[cookie-nut.livejournal.com]

NGL, If I were an evil villain, that would be my base of operation. All it needs now is a thunderstorm.

Re: Hotel of Doom

[anaaga.livejournal.com]

i'm wondering how the guests could sleep at the top floor

Re: Hotel of Doom

[guiltyschu.livejournal.com]

A former professor of mine who actually used to live in North Korea for a time used to call this place 'Kim Jong Il's erectile dysfunction'. XD It's apparently just a giant fail of a place, they'd almost be better to just tear it down haha.

[rinn1e.livejournal.com]

Can I laugh that this isn't serious enough to get people attention compare to some of the false articles that has been coming out a few days earlier?


But, but this has to do with Yesung's dad! It's kpopped enough!

[angelonair.livejournal.com]

....oh o.

Hope this doesn't turn into something bigger.

[tearbear.livejournal.com]

whoever wrote this needs to learn the idea of paragraphing.

tl;dr

[booksandsarcasm.livejournal.com]

xDD Actually I wouldn't say it is totally America's fault that the war took place since the communist government in Russia actually encouraged Kim Jong Il to try to take over the South. Because they didn't feel like the U.S. would intervene since they had their hands busy with Japan. The reason they did was because they feared the communist rule undermining democracy etc. So I don't think it was purely acted on because of the cold war but more of both sides wanting to ensure that their system of gov. wasn't undermined. I don't really know what to say about the lower half of your statement. Because frankly a lot of people seem terrified of North Korea. Especially with them kidnapping citizens and claiming that they defected. (because heck, with all that Japanese technology I would love to live in a concentration camp instead) And with their constant threats and look at me! antics I don't see why people in Japan would want this to continue when they have to worry about them possibly firing things their way? I hate how the united nations always seems to be bumbling around and at the most wagging their fingers when N. Korea does something else but I can also see why people want to be careful. Correct me if I'm wrong but I've also heard that both China and Russia are a little bit protective of N. Korea so that added to the whole nuclear weapons thing makes it kind of... not that easy. As for the South Koreans hating the North Koreans... I don't know as much about that so I couldn't say but I continually hear of people attempting to float balloons with democracy pamphlets over there to try to educate people on the reality of the situation. If the North Koreans hate the South Koreas I would probably say that thinking otherwise is extremely dangerous for them, given the state of the dictatorship over there.

[ijiified.livejournal.com]

Dude, Obama in Seoul?!

Tell me it would not be awesome hilarious to see some Obama/Kpop action. XDDDDD

[shopaholism.livejournal.com]

my two obsessions would collide, omfg mind would be blown

[outlawed.livejournal.com]

We're in enough shit as it is. America should stay out of it.

[rawthorne.livejournal.com]

This isn't aimed at the OP, but more of a general comment given the threads I've read. There's a difference between foreign aid and foreign involvement. One doesn't preclude the other. When states appeal to the US, they aren't asking for an occupation force in their territory. Of course, states tend to be made up of people and leaders both - and their interests often clash.

So no, it's not a matter of damned if you do, damned if you don't.

[booksandsarcasm.livejournal.com]

Lol, I see what you mean. I guess I'm more irritated with the fact that because people and government interests sometimes differ that sometimes it really feels like people are asking for the US to go in and do stuff because it's their obligation and then otherwise to gtfo. A lot of people are convinced that the U.S. should step in and help (like in Africa with some of the genocide) but meanwhile the government disagrees. So sometimes, even if it isn't a damned if you do situation (which, I cannot even say it always is because the U.S. frankly has screwed up some things getting too involved) it often feels like people love to complain about the states as being always greedy or always nosy.