Korean Navies exchange fire

A North Korean warship was heavily damaged Tuesday when the navies of the two Koreas briefly exchanged fire, South Korean military officials said.

South Korean Commodore Lee Ki-sik said the shooting lasted for about two minutes, adding that one South Korean ship was lightly damaged.

"It's a regrettable incident," Lee told reporters in Seoul. "We are sternly protesting to North Korea and urging it to prevent the recurrence of similar incidents."

The North Korean military blamed South Korea for the clash, claiming that South Korean ships had crossed into its territorial waters. The official Korean Central News Agency reported that North Korea demanded an apology.

In a statement from the South Korean Joint Chiefs of Staff, they said that North Korean patrol boats crossed a disputed western sea border around 11:27 a.m. local time. A South Korean ship responded with a warning shot. A North Korean ship opened fire, but it sailed back to its waters after South Korean ships returned fire.

The incident took place about 220 kilometres off the South Korean port city of Incheon, near the island of Daecheong, which is owned by South Korea.

SEOUL, Nov. 10 (Yonhap) -- President Lee Myung-bak told the military Tuesday to maintain calm, asking it to ensure that a naval clash with North Korea does not develop into a worsening situation, his senior secretary said.

   Convening an emergency meeting of security-related ministers immediately after being told of the skirmish off the west coast, Lee called Defense Minister Kim Tae-young.
"The president instructed the military to react decisively, yet calmly to make sure the situation does not further deteriorate," Lee Dong-kwan, a senior secretary to the president for public relations, said in a statement.

   The security ministers' meeting largely focused on the impact Tuesday's clash will have on inter-Korean relations, according to the Cheong Wa Dae official.

   The armed clash erupted shortly after 11:30 a.m. in what Seoul's Prime Minister Chung Un-chan characterized as an "accidental" clash.

   "Today's clash took place as the North Korean side disregarded our verbal warnings and warning shots and directly attacked our speedboats," the prime minister said while answering questions at a parliamentary interpellation session.

   "It was an accidental clash, so we ask the people to have confidence in our military and government and carry on with their daily lives as usual," he said.

   South Korea will continue exchanges with North Korea as usual, keeping its border open to local workers traveling to the North and proceeding with planned humanitarian aid, officials said. The calm response contrasted with hard-line steps Seoul had taken in response to Pyongyang's long-range rocket and nuclear tests in the spring, such as a blanket ban on trips by aid workers and other non-governmental figures to the North.

   "With regard to this incident, there are no restrictive measures, such as minimizing the number of visitors to the North and other artificial control measures, under consideration," Unification Ministry spokesman Chun Hae-sung said.

   Some trips were, however, voluntarily canceled. Several aid workers and staff from the South Korean branch of the U.N. Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization postponed their trip to Pyongyang for security concerns, officials said.

   South Korea sustained no casualties from the two-minute skirmish that occurred near Baengnyeong Island. But the North Korean patrol boat apparently suffered "considerable" damage before retreating, according to the South Korean navy. The extent of possible casualties in the North was not immediately known.

   Bloody skirmishes occurred at the Yellow Sea border in 1999 and 2002, claiming scores of lives on both sides.

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, the first such clash in seven years, South Korean officials said. There were no South Korean casualties, the country's Joint Chiefs of Staff said in a statement, and it was not immediately clear if there were any casualties on the North Korean side. Each side blamed the other for violating the sea border.

North Korea says South Korea will pay "an expensive price" for firing at a North Korean patrol boat on Tuesday.

The official Rodong Sinmun newspaper published a commentary Thursday saying the clash in the Yellow Sea was not an accident, but instead was a "premeditated act of aggression" by the South. The commentary said the incident was meant to escalate tensions and dampen a positive atmosphere between the two countries.

1996: A North Korean submarine runs aground in South Korean waters
1998: South Korea captures a North Korean mini-submarine in its waters
1999: At least 17 North Korean sailors believed killed in naval fire fight
2002: Four South Korean sailors and an estimated 30 North Koreans killed in a naval battle.