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South Korean patrol boats (AP Photo/ South Korea Navy via Yonhap)
North and South Korean naval forces engaged in a clash along their disputed western sea border, according to AP reports Tuesday morning.
A North Korean ship was heavily damaged and reported to be enveloped in flames as it retreated.
North Korea's military issued a statement blaming South Korea for the 'grave armed provocation.'
North Korea claimed that a group of South Korean ships opened fire but fled after a North Korean patrol boat dealt a 'prompt retaliatory blow.'
South Korea's Joint Chiefs of Staff said in a statement that a North Korean patrol boat crossed the disputed western sea border 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 South Korean ship is reported to have fired 50 rounds at the North Korean patrol boat at a range of 2 miles.
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 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 warned of an impending naval clash in October of this year.
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"The reckless military provocations by warships of the South Korean Navy have created such a serious situation that a naval clash may breakout between the two sides in these waters," the North's KNA news agency was quoted as saying in AP news articles.
The two sides clashed at sea in 1999 and again in 2002 with deadly results.
The first battle in 1999 is generally considered an embarassing defeat for the North.
An intense gun battle took place in June of 1999 during which the South had a corvette and a patrol boat damaged with 7 wounded, while North Korea had a torpedo boat sunk and 5 patrol boats damaged with 30 killed and 70 wounded
A battle in 2002 in the same area involved fewer ships but was also deadly.
Two North Korean Navy patrol boats crossed the northern limit in the West Sea on June 28, 2002. When two South Korean vessels approached, the North Korean vessels opened fire. The South Korean ships returned fire, forcing the North Korean patrol boats to retreat.
One of the North Korean vessels was seen to be heavily damaged and on fire. Four South Korean sailors were killed and 18 wounded,and a disabled South Korean ship sank while being towed back to shore.
SM-3 missile launch (AP Photo/Missile Defense)
In a related development, a Japanese navy ship intercepted a medium-range ballistic missile in a test off Hawaii, according to military sources quoted by the AP.
The drill was the third such test for Japan, which began investing in a U.S.-developed ballistic missile defense system after North Korea test-fired a long-range missile over northern Japan in 1998.
The U.S. fired the test's target from the Pacific Missile Range Facility on Kauai, and the JS Myoko destroyer detected the target, tracked it, then fired an SM-3 interceptor missile from its deck.
The interceptor hit the target in space about 100 miles above the Pacific Ocean, the militaries said in a joint news release.
The target's warhead separated from its booster rocket, so the interceptor had to distinguish between the two parts and hit the warhead.
There were no South Korean casualties in the latest naval clash which occurred on Tuesday morning, according to AP articles, although one South Korean ship was slightly damaged.
South Korea has been steadily upgrading its naval capabilities. The navy operates 4,370-ton and 3,200-ton destroyers with advanced arms, as well as an Aegis-class destroyer.The Aegis system on the 7,600-ton destroyer provides advanced combat, control and information capabilities. The South Korean Navy is committed to building two more by such ships by 2012.
North Korea is continuing to build attack warships and has enhanced its naval capabilities with new ground-to-sea missile systems. North Korea also posesses powerful coastal defense artillery.
Recent anti-terrorism drill in Seoul subway (AP Photo/Ahn Young-joon)
North Korea said last week it has reprocessed 8,000 spent nuclear fuel rods and extracted enough plutonium to bolster its atomic stockpile, raising the stakes in an apparent effort to push the U.S. into direct negotiations.
Reprocessing the spent fuel rods would give the regime enough weapons-grade plutonium for at least one more atomic bomb, experts say. Pyongyang is believed to have enough weaponized plutonium for half a dozen nuclear weapons.
The threat of an expanding North Korean nuclear arsenal comes a day after Pyongyang warned Washington it would beef up its nuclear stockpile if the U.S. refuses to hold bilateral talks.
North Korea has demanded direct talks with the United States to resolve the protracted standoff over the regime's nuclear program.
The AP reported 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.
North Korea frequently uses aggressive tactics to coerce the West and draw attention away from its internal difficulties which include widespread food shortages made worse by its 'military first' policy.
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South Korea recently concluded anti-terrorism exercises which were notable for their scope and intensity.
This following reports earlier this year that North Korea intends to increase its already large special forces with additional troops trained to cross the border in the event of war and conduct sabotage activities including planting Iraqi-style IEDs.
This new tactic was said to be cost-effective for the cash-strapped North which has been facing difficulties maintaining its aging military equipment.
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The U.S. and South Korea recently completed extensive joint annual military exercises which were widely condemned as provocative in the North Korean press.
The attached slideshow consists of AP photos of the exercises.
John Signoriello can be contacted by email at siexaminer@yahoo.com
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