NKorean shell lands in SKorean waters

By SAM KIM - Associated Press | AP – 3 hours ago.. .

SEOUL, South Korea (AP) — South Korean marines returned fire Wednesday after North Korea launched artillery shells into waters near the disputed maritime line that separates the two rivals, South Korean defense officials said.

The three North Korean shells fired near the Northern Limit Line in the Yellow Sea prompted the South to fire three shells back, Defense Ministry spokesman Kim Min-seok said. Another ministry official, who refused to be named because of office policy, said North Korea fired more rounds later in the day and South Korea responded. He could not immediately say how many rounds were fired by both sides.

Both sides' shells landed in the water, and there were no reports of casualties.

South Korean forces have been on high alert in the area since a North Korean artillery attack killed four people in November on South Korea's Yeonpyeong island. Wednesday's artillery exchange, which happened in hazy weather, was near that island.

The firing follows a recent easing of animosity between the Koreas and could be a warning about joint U.S.-South Korean military drills set for next week. Last month, a senior North Korean diplomat met with U.S. officials in New York to negotiate ways to restart long-stalled international talks aimed at persuading the North to abandon its nuclear weapons aspirations. The meeting came after the Koreas' nuclear envoys held cordial talks during a regional security forum in Indonesia.

The official who spoke on condition of anonymity said South Korean forces stepped up their monitoring of the North after Wednesday's artillery exchange. South Korean marines on Yeonpyeong returned fire after North Korea fired from one of its front-line islands, the official said.

The North's shelling took place unexpectedly, the official said, and neither side was conducting firing drills at the time. The South Korean military has yet to determine the motive behind the North's shelling, the official said.

Neither the North's government nor its official news agency immediately commented on the shelling.

Violence often erupts in the contested slice of sea. Boats routinely jostle for position during crab-catching season, and three deadly naval clashes since 1999 have taken a few dozen lives.

Kim said one North Korean artillery shell is believed to have fallen south of the maritime line, citing a preliminary analysis of the trajectory of the shell.

The line separating the countries was drawn by the U.S.-led U.N. Command without Pyongyang's consent at the close of the 1950-53 Korean War, which ended with a truce, not a peace treaty, leaving the peninsula still technically in a state of war. The line is still a fierce point of dispute.

North Korea argues that the line should run farther south. Seoul believes accepting such a line would endanger fishing around five South Korean islands and hamper access to its port at Incheon.

The November attack marked a new level of hostility along the contested line. Two South Korean civilians and two marines died, and many houses were gutted in the shelling.

Baek Seung-joo, a military analyst at the state-run Korea Institute for Defense Analyses in South Korea, said the North appears to be rattling its sabers ahead of annual U.S.-South Korean military exercises planned for next week.

North Korea routinely denounces Seoul and Washington for such drills, calling them precursors to an invasion. The impoverished North faces heavy economic pressure when it is forced to mobilize its own military to counter South Korean drills.

On Monday, a North Korean military spokesman released an open letter that called the joint exercises "hideous provocations." He warned that the North has access to a "nuclear deterrent powerful enough to protect" itself.

The North has conducted two nuclear tests since 2006.

Baek also said the North appears to be keeping tension alive in an effort to unite its own people, even as it moves to restore dialogue with the outside world.

Meanwhile, South Korea's Red Cross said in a statement that it has sent Pyongyang a list of items meant to help North Korea recover from recent flooding and heavy rain. The items included baby food, cookies and instant noodles.

The North has yet to accept the aid offer. Last week, the North's Red Cross asked the South to send concrete as well. The South refused. Seoul worries such material may be used for military purposes.

Koreas exchange fire twice near border
2011-08-10 22:32

North Korea twice fired shells near the flashpoint Yellow Sea border with South Korea Wednesday, prompting warning shots from the South's marines in response, Seoul's military said.

The incidents fuelled already high tensions along the disputed sea border, which saw bloody naval skirmishes in recent years and a deadly shelling attack on South Korea's Yeonpyeong island last November.

The first incident came at 1 pm (0400 GMT), when Seoul's defence ministry said a North Korean shell landed near the border, known as the Northern Limit Line (NLL).

Marines based on Yeonpyeong island broadcast a warning and then fired three warning shots from K-9 self-propelled guns.

The North's coastal artillery fired again at 7:46 pm towards the border and the South again fired warning shots in response, a ministry spokesman told AFP.

"There were no more shots afterwards but we're now closely watching the situation," he said, declining to say how many rounds were fired.

Yonhap news agency quoted a resident of Yeonpyeong island as saying the North fired three shots in the evening, the same number as earlier in the day.

The ministry said the initial shells may have been fired during a training exercise.

The border firing came after the North made apparent peace overtures in recent weeks and expressed interest in restarting stalled six-nation nuclear disarmament talks.

Nuclear envoys from the two Koreas held rare talks in Bali last month, and a senior North Korean official visited New York later for discussions with US officials.

Troops on Yeonpyeong and other frontline islands have been on high alert since last November's bombardment, which killed four South Koreans including two civilians and damaged scores of buildings.

The government has reinforced troops and sent extra weaponry to the islands.

The firing in early afternoon briefly sparked alarm on Yeonpyeong, where some 1,800 civilians live along with the Marine garrison.

"The residents were preparing to evacuate their homes for shelters since they went through a similar thing in the past," a spokeswoman for Ongjin county, which oversees the island, told AFP.

"But they did not actually move to shelters since things have calmed down,"

the spokeswoman said, speaking before the evening firing.

The NLL was drawn unilaterally by United Nations forces after the 1950-53 war. The North refuses to accept it and says it should run further to the south.

The boundary line was the scene of deadly naval clashes in 1999, 2002 and November 2009. The South also accuses the North of torpedoing one of its warships near the NLL in March 2010, with the loss of 46 lives.

The North denied the charge but last November shelled Yeonpyeong in the first attack on a civilian-populated area in the South since the war.

The North said it was responding to a South Korean artillery drill which encroached into its waters. (AFP)

China tests its first aircraft carrier at sea


HONG KONG (Yonhap) -- China started to test its first aircraft carrier on Wednesday, a state news media outlet said, a move likely to add to foreign concerns over its military expansion.

The Chinese government said last month that it is refitting an imported aircraft carrier body, confirming foreign speculation that the country will soon launch its own aircraft carrier.

Xinhua said the refitted former Soviet carrier Varyag left its shipyard at Dalian Port in northeast Liaoning Province to start its first sea trial.

The first sea trial was "in line with schedule of the carrier's refitting project" and will not take a long time, said China's official news agency, citing military sources.


After returning from the sea trial, the aircraft carrier will continue refit and test work, it said.


The Chinese Ministry of Defense said earlier that the new aircraft carrier will be used for scientific research, experiments and training when its refitting is completed.

Beijing has been seeking to increase its military power to a level equivalent to its economic status.

It bought the Russian carrier in 1998 from Ukraine. The People's Liberation Army has also been rumored to have purchased a number of carrier landing systems and dozens of Russian carrier-based aircraft.

The 67,500-ton aircraft carrier is 302 meters long and is capable of carrying 52 aircraft with 1,960 crew members aboard.
It is highly probable that the carrier will be launched on Oct. 1, the founding anniversary of China, three months later than July 1, the 90th founding anniversary of the Chinese Communist Party, as the repair work has been delayed, watchers said.
"China's research on the development of the aircraft carriers is to promote the capabilities in maintaining peace and safeguarding the national security. China will not change its defense policy or its offshore defense strategies," Geng Yansheng, spokesman for the defense ministry, said last month at a press conference.

Currently, nine countries around the world have a total of about 20 active aircraft carriers of varying sizes. The U.S. is known to have 11 carriers, while Italy has two. Britain, France, Russia, Spain, Brazil, India and Thailand each have one. Japan and South Korea have similar amphibious assault helicopter carriers.

"The timing of revealing the information on the carrier has nothing to do with the South China Sea situation. We all know building a carrier is a complex project that takes a lot of time. It's appropriate that we disclosed some of its information at this period in time," Geng said.

Tensions between China and some Southeast Asian countries have been mounting recently over territorial disputes in the resource-rich South China Sea. China claims the entire sea as its own, while Brunei, Malaysia, Vietnam, the Philippines and Taiwan maintain partial or overlapping claims.

source: http://www.koreatimes.co.kr/www/news/nation/2011/08/116_92503.html