channelnewsasia.com - North Korean patrol boat intrudes disputed sea border

channelnewsasia.com - North Korean patrol boat intrudes disputed sea border

Is n Korea provoking the South in a battle?

SEOUL: A North Korean navy patrol boat Thursday crossed into South Korean waters and stayed almost one hour before retreating, further fuelling military tensions after Pyongyang's nuclear test last week.

A Seoul minister said Pyongyang's recent aggressive moves are probably motivated by leader Kim Jong-Il's desire to bolster his authority before handing over power to one of his sons.

Since the May 25 atomic test, the North has launched six short-range missiles, renounced the truce which ended the 1950-1953 Korean War and threatened attacks on the South.

South Korean and US troops in the peninsula have gone on heightened alert. Seoul has deployed a high-speed patrol boat armed with ship-to-ship missiles near the disputed Yellow Sea border with the North, the scene of bloody clashes in 1999 and 2002.

The boat crossed the Yellow Sea border and stayed for 50 minutes before retreating to its own side after three warnings from South Korean craft, Seoul's Joint Chiefs of Staff said.

A spokesman said it apparently was chasing Chinese boats that were operating illegally in the rich crab fishing area, but did not exclude the possibility it was a planned intrusion to raise tensions further.

About 70 of some 90 Chinese fishing boats withdrew overnight from the area, Yonhap news agency said.

Unification Minister Hyun In-Taek, who is in charge of cross-border relations, said Kim, 67, may be "accelerating a procedure to transfer power to his son due to his worsening health."

Kim reportedly suffered a stroke last August.

South Korean lawmakers, quoting the country's intelligence service, said Tuesday he had nominated his third and youngest son, 26-year-old Jong-Un.

Hyun said there was no confirmation of which of the three sons was selected.

Analysts believe Kim staged the May 25 nuclear test to shore up his authority among the party and military in preparation for an eventual power transfer.

Hyun agreed that Kim's "anxiety over the uncertain future of his regime" is behind the North's "provocative activities towards the outside world as well as recent developments inside North Korea."

US Deputy Secretary of State James Steinberg is leading a high-level delegation to East Asia to discuss a response to the North's nuclear test, its second since 2006.

Diplomats from the five permanent UN Security Council members plus Japan and South Korea are negotiating in New York about a resolution which could include new financial and other sanctions.

The United States is pushing for tough measures but it is unclear how far China and Russia will go. Moscow's UN envoy Vitaly Churkin said Wednesday the resolution should not include any "economic embargoes."

Steinberg, in a meeting with South Korean President Lee Myung-Bak Thursday, was quoted as saying that China has grown cooler towards its traditional ally since the test.

"North Korea is failing to read changes in China's position," the Seoul presidential office quoted Steinberg as saying at the private meeting.

"It would be a mistake for the North to believe that it can obtain what it wants through negotiations after staging provocative acts... the United States will never repeat the same mistake," he reportedly said.

Lee called for a "strong, unified response" to the test.

Chinese President Hu Jintao held telephone talks with his US counterpart Barack Obama about the North's nuclear programmes, state media in Beijing said.

They spoke Wednesday about bilateral relations and exchanged opinions on the situation on the Korean peninsula, the People's Daily said without giving details.

Steinberg arrived Tuesday from Japan and will leave Friday for China, which hosts six-party talks on the North's nuclear disarmament. The talks also include the two Koreas, Japan, the US and Russia.

After the UN Security Council censured its April 5 rocket launch, the North announced it was quitting the talks and restarting a programme to make weapons-grade plutonium.