SEOUL, May 27 (Yonhap) -- Military tension rose sharply between South and North Korea on Wednesday as the North declared an inter-Korean armistice null and void, a move that analysts say may lead to clashes any time. Pyongyang's nullification of the truce that stopped the 1950-1953 Korean War came a day after Seoul announced its decision to join a U.S.-led drive to stop the spread of weapons of mass destruction.
| "You know this means war!" |
In a statement, North Korea described the current situation as tense "as in wartime" and "beyond the uncontrollable danger line of a war."
| "And again I say, 'War.' " |
The North specifically referred to the western sea border, the site of two bloody naval skirmishes in 1999 and 2002. The North said it will no longer guarantee the safe passage of civilian ships, as well as U.S. and South Korean warships, operating along the Yellow Sea border, a resounding threat during peak crab-catching season.
"With this warning, a military clash is no more a possibility, but a reality. Words are turning into action," Paik Hak-soon, an analyst with the non-governmental Sejong Institute, said.
| "War -- in case you were wondering." |
The sea border was unilaterally drawn by the U.S.-led United Nations Command after the 1950-53 Korean War. North Korea has rejected it as illegitimate and in 1999 redrew the border further south. But it still acknowledged South Korea's jurisdiction over several inhabited islands located in the overlapping zone.
Past skirmishes claimed the lives of scores of naval soldiers on both sides.
| Naval soldiers? Did the writer mean marines, sailors, or perhaps something I've not heard of? |
Paik said if any skirmish recurs there, casualties will be larger due to the lack of inter-Korean communication channels. |