Tensions rise as N Korea fires on S Korean island

TENSIONS on the Korean peninsula remain high, despite tentative signs of an easing in recent months, after the North again fired artillery shells in the direction of a South Korean island near a disputed maritime border that has seen fatal confrontations before.

The South did not return fire. The North is probably trying to provoke tension with South Korea to drive home its demand for direct talks with Washington over its nuclear programme and to try and reach a peace treaty to replace the armistice that ended the 1950-53 Korean War.

The two Koreas remain technically at war and share one of the world’s most militarised borders, as the shelling of the last two days has shown.

Unlike the heavily fortified Demilitarised Zone between the two Koreas, the sea border is poorly marked. It was hastily drawn up by the Americans at the end of the Korean War, and is a constant source of tension between both Koreas.

These incidents involving shelling always ratchet up tensions, because North Korea has more than 10,000 pieces of artillery aimed at the South and boasts of how its guns could destroy much of the capital, Seoul, in a matter of hours. Seoul is just 40km from the border.

Meanwhile, North Korea said an American has been detained for illegally entering the country, the second arrest of a US citizen it has reported in the past few weeks.

Another American, activist Robert Park, was caught at the border last month. He said beforehand he was crossing to raise awareness about the North’s human rights abuses.