North Korea expresses regret for naval clash

NORTH Korea expressed regret for a June 29 naval clash with South Korea and proposed talks aimed at resolving the issue, the South Korean government said yesterday.

“North Korea proposed joint efforts to prevent such incidents from happening again,” Vice-Unification Minister Kim Hyong-gi said.

North Korea proposed the resumption of working-level talks early next month at the Diamond Mountain resort on the east coast of the communist country, Kim said.

The working-level talks would set the stage for Cabinet-level negotiations to be held in Seoul, Kim quoted the North Korean negotiator, Kim Ryong-song, as saying.

North Korea warned that new naval clashes could break out with South Korea unless the US-led United Nations Command abolishes what the North called an illegal border drawn in the Yellow Sea.

In a report carried by the official Korean Central News Agency, or KCNA, the North’s Foreign Ministry said the “illegal” sea border was the cause of the deadly naval skirmish on June 29 between the two Koreas, the first since 1999. In the clash, one South Korean naval patrol boat sank, killing four sailors and wounding 19 others. One was listed as missing.

North Korea said it also suffered casualties but did not say how many.

South Korean officials said that about 30 North Korean sailors were believed to have died or been wounded in the encounter.

In 1999, a series of North Korean incursions across the western sea border touched off the first naval clash between the sides since the Korean War. One North Korean boat sank, and about 30 communist sailors were believed to have died. Several South Koreans were injured.

When the Korean war ended in 1953, the United Nations Command and North Korea agreed on land borders but failed to establish a maritime border in the Yellow Sea, which lies west of the Korean peninsula.

To prevent armed clashes in the Yellow Sea, the UN Command declared a “northern limit line,” roughly halfway between mainland North Korea and South Korea-controlled islands.