North Korea has accused the United States of staging a weekend battle between the North and South Korean navies to strain ties between the divided neighbours, but Washington swiftly rejected this as "spurious".
The United States has described Saturday's battle, in which four South Korean sailors died and 19 were wounded, as an "armed provocation" by the North and agreed yesterday to step up border surveillance with South Korea's military.
The clash, just hours before South Korea's soccer team played its last match on the penultimate day of the month-long World Cup finals it co-hosted with Japan, was a reminder that the Korean peninsula remains one of the world's potential flashpoints.
It underscored the problems President Mr Kim Dae-jung faces when he returns to Seoul from a Japanese trip later today.
He is expected to outline his views on the clash, which he has already said will prompt tighter defences but not stop him pursuing his "Sunshine Policy" of engaging the North.
The opposition and some newspapers are calling for a review of Mr Kim's Nobel Peace Prize winning policy and a halt to tourist programmes which generate hard currency for North Korea.