DPRK Blames South Korea for Armed Clash

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Last updated at: (Beijing Time) Monday, July 01, 2002

DPRK Blames South Korea for Armed Clash

The Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK) on Sunday blamed the South Korean military for the armed clash on the Yellow Sea and once again declared the inter- Korean marine border illegal.

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The Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK) on Sunday blamed the South Korean military for the armed clash on the Yellow Sea and once again declared the inter- Korean marine border illegal.

In an interview with the Korean Central News Agency (KCNA), A DPRK navy spokesman accused the South Korean military authorities of provocation, saying the DPRK's two patrol boats were outnumbered by South Korean warships and were "incapable of making a preemptive attack."

Navies of the DPRK and South Korea exchanged fires on the waters around Yonpyong Island in the Yellow Sea on Saturday morning. Four South Korean soldiers were dead and one was missing in the clash.

The two sides have blamed each other for causing the armed clash. The DPRK said the clash was a planned military provocative action by the South Korean military authorities, while South Korea demanded that the DPRK apologize for its military action on the Yellow Sea.

The DPRK navy spokesman refused to apologize for the clash, saying the South Korean call for the DPRK to take responsibility and apologize is an act of "impudence".

The DPRK official also asked the South Korean military authorities to "first of all, admit the illegality of the so- called 'northern boundary line'."

The "northern boundary line" or the Northern Limit Line (NLL) was the inter-Korean maritime border that was unilaterally drawn up by the United States and South Korea in the 1950s. The DPRK government has never admitted the line as a legal border.

South Korean President Kim Dae-jung left Seoul on Sunday morning for Yokohama, Japan to attend the World Cup closure ceremony on schedule in spite of the inter-Korean naval clash.

During his three-day visit in Japan, Kim Dae-jung will still receive reports from South Korean Prime Minister Lee Han-dong and Defense Minister Kim Dong-shin about the government's follow-up measures to the clash, said the South Korean national agency Yonhap News.

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