N.K. declares firing zones near border

From news reports



North Korea has declared naval firing zones near its disputed sea border with South Korea, Seoul`s the Joint Chiefs of Staff said yesterday.

The "no sail" zones raised the prospect of a further display of firepower after the North`s artillery barrage in late January heightened tensions on the divided peninsula.

The Defense Ministry said the North has deployed multiple rocket launchers in the western coastal bases close to the frontier.

In a closed meeting of a parliamentary defense committee, the ministry said the rocket launchers, with a maximum range of 60 kilometers, have been deployed since a firefight last November which left a North Korean patrol boat in flames.

The communist state declared four exclusion zones in the West Sea - including two near the border - and two in the East Sea off its northeast coast, the JCS said.

They will be effective for three days from Saturday.

"Currently, there is no unusual military activity detected in the North," a JCS spokesman said.

The West Sea border was the scene of deadly naval battles in 1999 and 2002.

After declaring two "no sail" zones, the North in late January fired 370 shells into the sea near the border over three days.

The North said it was staging a routine exercise but South Korea and the United States described the action as provocative.



Since then the North has again declared "no sail" zones but not gone ahead with any exercises.

Meanwhile, a news report said yesterday a top North Korean nuclear envoy could visit the United States soon for bilateral talks amid diplomatic efforts to jump-start stalled talks on ending Pyongyang`s nuclear weapons program.

North Korean envoy Kim Kye-gwan plans to attend a seminar in San Francisco before heading to New York to meet with Washington`s lead nuclear negotiator Sung Kim either late this month or next month, the cable news network YTN reported, citing an unidentified source in Beijing.

Kim visited Beijing last week for talks with his Chinese counterpart on resuming the disarmament talks that also involve South Korea, Russia and Japan.

During Kim`s stay in Beijing, his aide met with U.S. Embassy officials in Beijing to coordinate Kim`s trip to the U.S., YTN said.

In Washington, State Department spokesman Darby Holladay said late Thursday evening that he was unaware of any meetings. Spokesman P.J. Crowley said last week that there were no plans for a visit by Kim.

Officials from the U.S. and North Korea last met one-on-one in December, when President Barack Obama`s special envoy on North Korea, Stephen Bosworth, visited Pyongyang. The bilateral talks were the first since Obama took office.

North Korea quit the disarmament-for-aid negotiations and conducted a second nuclear test last year, drawing tightened U.N. sanctions.

North Korea has demanded a lifting of the sanctions and peace talks formally ending the 1950-53 Korean War before it returns to the negotiating table.

The communist country yesterday vowed not to abandon its nuclear weapons in return for economic aid, saying the United States should first change its "hostile" policy.

The North has developed atomic bombs for its own defense, "not to threaten anybody or receive economic favors or rewards," the official Korean Central News Agency said.

It is a "misjudgment" if the outside world thinks it will dump nuclear bombs in return for economic benefits, the agency added.

"Unless (the U.S.) terminates its hostile policy and nuclear threats towards our republic, our abandonment of nuclear weapons will not happen even if the earth breaks."