N. Korea saber-rattles over sea border line
Yoon Cheong-ja, the mother of late Master Sergeant Min Pyeong-ki who died when the warship Cheonan was sunk by a North Korean torpedo attack, calls for disclosing the dialogue of the 2007 inter-Korean summit that allegedly contains late President Roh Moo-hyun’s remarks on the Northern Limit Line (NLL) during a press conference at the press center in Seoul, Thursday. / Yonhap
By Kim Young-jin
North Korea threatened “severe repercussions” Thursday over a recent agreement between South Korea and the United States to bolster their deterrence capabilities near the tense West Sea border.
During annual defense talks last month, Seoul and Washington agreed to enhance combined capabilities in order to be “prepared for North Korean provocations in the vicinity of the Northwest Islands and the Northern Limit Line (NLL).”
The North, through its official Korean Central News Agency, said the strengthening of joint military activities near the border would constitute "an explicit declaration of war.”
"The severe repercussion the military collusion would result in should be kept in mind," the KCNA said.
Pyongyang has never recognized the NLL, which was drawn up after armistice that ended the 1950-53 Korean War. The de facto boundary crosses an area of fishing grounds coveted by the North’s ailing economy.
The remarks on the boundary ― a flashpoint for conflict ― come at a sensitive time as Seoul gears up for a presidential election in December.
On several occasions last month, North Korean fishing boats briefly cross the boundary in apparent efforts to test the South’s will during election season.
The boundary has been a sensitive political issue here in the run-up to the polls, after a conservative lawmaker recently alleged that the late liberal President Roh Moo-hyun verbally surrendered the Northern Limit Line (NLL) in talks with North Korean leader Kim Jong-il in 2007.
During the Korea-U.S.-ROK Security Consultative Meetings last month, the sides also agreed to increase combined surveillance activities of the situation in North Korea in a bid to ensure security through the Dec. 18 presidential elections.
During the talks, Defense Minister Kim Kwan-jin and his U.S. counterpart Leon Panetta noted that the NLL “has been an effective means of separating the militaries of the two Koreas and urged the North to accept the practical value of and abide by” the boundary.
Tensions around the sea boundary spiked in 2010 after Pyongyang sank the warship Cheonan and shelled the border island of Yeonpyeong in separate incidents that killed a total of 50 South Koreans.
Meanwhile, a group that includes bereaved family members of the two attacks, requested that any record of the 2007 inter-Korean summit that might shed light on the alleged remarks by President Roh be released, to prevent “unnecessary conflict or political strife.”