Tensions on the Korean peninsula escalated sharply yesterday when a suspected North Korean submarine was captured in South Korean waters.
The latest crisis between the North Korea and South Korea came as United States and North Korean generals prepared to resume landmark military talks to ease the risk of conflict.
It also followed the raising last week of South Korean hopes of a reconciliation with the North amid signs of greater flexibility and co-operation in relations between Pyongyang, Washington and Seoul. But those hopes appeared to fade yesterday as Seoul's military was put on high alert on the country's east coast with the discovery of the presumed North Korean midget submarine..
The intruder submarine became entangled in the nets of a fishing vessel 18.4 kilometres off the South Korean coast, near the spot where a North Korean midget submarine carrying armed commandos ran aground in 1996, according to South Korea's joint chiefs of staff. The submarine was towed to the naval base of Kisamun, on South Korea's east coast.
The 1996 submarine intrusion saw 24 commandos from North Korea shot dead by their own colleagues or killed by South Korean soldiers after coming ashore when their 325-tonne Shark Class vessel ran aground.
South Korea's President, Mr Kim Dae-Jung, yesterday convened an urgent session of the National Security Council and Emergency Planning Committee for the first time since he took office in February.
"We are sure that the sub was sent by North Korea . . . but we have yet to investigate whether it had drifted into our territory or was caught intruding," one military officer commented.
North Korea meanwhile hinted, just hours ahead of today's landmark military talks intended to defuse tension on the Korean peninsula, that it may resume a frozen nuclear programme unless US sanctions against famine-stricken Pyongyang are lifted.
A North Korean foreign ministry spokesman said Pyongyang would make "its own choice of road" unless Washington stood by a 1994 deal under which the North agreed to dismantle its suspect nuclear programme in return for a raft of measures, including a verbal pledge to ease sanctions.
Pyongyang has often called for their lifting, but the prospect had appeared unlikely until the South Korean president last week won a positive response during a summit with President Clinton.