SEOUL, South Korea – North Korea warned South Korea of a possible naval clash Thursday, accusing Seoul of sending warships into its waters around their disputed western sea border.
The South's "reckless military provocations" have created "such a serious situation that a naval clash may break out between the two sides in these waters," the North's navy said in a statement carried by the country's official Korean Central News Agency. North Korea has often issued similar warnings before, as it does not recognize the western sea border. The communist nation claims that the United Nations unilaterally drew the line at the end of the 1950-53 Korean War, and that it should be redrawn further south.
The dispute led to two bloody naval skirmishes in 1999 and in 2002.
But the latest warning came as relations between the two Koreas showed signs of improvement with the North taking a series of conciliatory steps like freeing detained South Koreans and pledging to resume stalled joint projects. On Wednesday, the North offered a rare apology to the South for releasing a massive amount of water from a dam that sparked flooding blamed for six South Korean deaths.
Ties between the two sides had badly frayed as North Korea cut off reconciliation talks and suspended joint projects in anger over the hard-line policy that the South's conservative President Lee Myung-bak has taken toward the North since taking office last year.
The two Koreas fought the 1950-53 Korean War, which ended in a truce, not a peace treaty, which means that the sides are still technically at war.
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I feel sorry for the North Koreans if they decide to test us. We do not have enough troops, and no time for a draft. But, we do have an ample supply of crowd pleasers. Tactical Nuclear Weapons. And, they will fall like rain.
SEOUL, South Korea – North Korea briefly activated radar for its surface-to-ship missiles Sunday, forcing South Korean naval vessels to move away from a disputed western sea border where the two countries' navies clashed last week, news reports said.
North Korea had warned it would take unspecified military action to defend itself following Tuesday's skirmish with South Korea. A senior South Korean military officer said the fighting left one North Korean crew member dead and three others wounded, while the South suffered no casualties.
Yonhap news agency reported that South Korea detected signs that North Korea activated its radar systems for anti-ship missiles at a western coastal site for about one hour starting at around 1 p.m.
