THE KOREAS: 2 Koreas’ Weapons Fire Adds to Tension

January 27, 2010

By CHOE SANG-HUN

SEOUL, South Korea — North Korea fired dozens of artillery shells on Wednesday from its shoreline into waters near its disputed western sea border with South Korea, and the South Korean military returned warning shots from smaller weapons, according to South Korean military officials and fishermen on a border island.

After the morning barrage, South Korea issued three warning broadcasts and then its marines based on a border island unleashed about 100 warning shots with their antiaircraft guns.

Neither side reported casualties or damage. The North Korean military warned in a statement that more shells would be on their way as part of a winter training exercise, highlighting instability in the western waters, the most volatile segment of the Koreas’ border.

On Wednesday morning, about 30 rounds of North Korean artillery splashed into two spots just north of the so-called Northern Limit Line, a United Nations-drawn sea border accepted by the South but disputed by the North, said a spokesman at the Office of the Joint Chiefs of Staff in Seoul, who spoke on condition of anonymity until the government made a formal announcement.

Hours later, North Korea fired a new barrage involving “tens of shells,” the official said.

The rising tension at sea comes amid recent signals from Pyongyang that it was ready to return six-nation talks on ending its nuclear weapons program. In return for resuming the talks, North Korea has demanded talks on a peace treaty with the United States to formally end the 1950-3 Korean War and the lifting of United Nations sanctions tightened after its two nuclear tests.

When North Korea wants to highlight instability along the frontier and thus the need for a permanent peace treaty, it often reasserts its territorial claims and warns of military clashes on the western sea.

The exchange of fire startled residents of Baengnyeong, the border island.

“We panicked a little because it was so loud and more fierce than their usual training,” said Kim Oe-sun, a shop owner on Baengnyeong Island, referring to the firing from the marine brigade stationed there.

Oh Baek-kyun, another Baengnyeong resident, said in a telephone interview: “It’s life as usual here. But a cargo ship bound for our island turned around because of what had happened out on the sea.”

On Tuesday, North Korea declared two no-sail zones straddling the disputed sea border. It usually designates such zones when its military conducts missile or artillery drills.

But the locations of the latest firing zones raised fears that North Korea might fire shells into South Korean-controlled waters to enforce a territorial claim, draw the South into dialogue and win economic concessions. In the past week, the two Koreas have engaged in harsh exchanges, with the North threatening a “holy war to blow away” the Seoul government and the South warning that it would launch pre-emptive military strikes if it saw clear signs of an imminent nuclear attack from the North.

The incident on Wednesday came after patrol ships from the two Koreas exchanged fire in the area in November. One North Korean sailor was believed to have been killed and three others wounded in that fighting, according to the South, which did not suffer casualties. The two navies also fought bloody skirmishes in the disputed waters in 1999 and 2002.

In a message to the North, South Korea expressed “grave concern,” accusing the North Korean military of “creating unnecessary tension through live-shell artillery fire.”

But the North Korean military said, “No one can argue about our premeditated exercises.” Its statement was carried by the North’s state-run news agency, K.C.N.A.

South Korea said ferry services were not interrupted to South Korean islands that lied within the range of North Korean shore guns, whose shells can travel up to 17 miles.

Baengnyeong Island lies 10 miles from the North Korean shore. South Korean marines maintain their barracks behind hills facing the North as a precaution against any attack. Civilians, most of them fishermen, are trained to run for military bunkers and pick up arms if a North Korean attack begins.

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