Associated Press Writer= SEOUL, South Korea (AP) â A badly damaged North Korean patrol ship retreated in flames Tuesday after a skirmish with a South Korean naval vessel along their disputed western coast, South Korean officials said.
The first naval clash between the two sides in seven years broke out just a week before President Barack Obama is due to visit Seoul, raising suspicions the North's communist regime is trying to ratchet up tensions to gain a negotiating advantage.
There were no South Korean casualties, the country's Joint Chiefs of Staff said in a statement. South Korea's YTN television reported that one North Korean officer was killed and three other sailors were wounded, citing an unidentified government source. The JCS said it could not confirm the YTN report.
Each side blamed the other for violating the sea border
North Korea's military issued a statement blaming South Korea for the "grave armed provocation," saying its ships had crossed into North Korean territory.
The North claimed that a group of South Korean warships opened fire but fled after the North Korean patrol boat dealt "a prompt retaliatory blow." The statement, carried on the official Korean Central News Agency, said the South should apologize.
South Korean President Lee Myung-bak, who convened an emergency security meeting, ordered the South's defense minister to strengthen military readiness.
Hundreds of thousands of combat-ready troops on both sides face across the 155-mile-long (248-kilometers-long) land border that is also strewn with land mines and tank traps and laced with barbed wire. About 28,500 U.S. troops are stationed in South Korea to deter a potential North Korean aggression.
Do you think the second Korean War is coming?
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Michael Paramo "To remain ignorant of what happened before you is to remain a child always" -Cicero
Technically, the Korean War hasn't ended. there was never a peace sign by them, there was cease-fire in 1953 and a non-aggression treaty in 1991 that was later ditch by the North Koreans.
my mom was talking to me about this, and she said she's extremely worried about what's going on. i was supposed to vacation to korea but it's been too dangerous these days. hopefully in the end it's ok; i honestly feel somethings going to happen though.
I read another article on this after I posted this that follows up on what happened and now it is saying that North Korea says that South Korea will pay for this naval skirmish. But the article also says that the North never specified what it meant by "will pay". Personally I think this "will pay" means a war is going to start soon.
