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SEOUL: A North Korean patrol boat was set ablaze after exchanging fire with South Korea's navy on Tuesday, Seoul officials said, as tensions rose a week before a scheduled US presidential visit.
The two sides blamed each other for the clash, the first in seven years near the disputed Yellow Sea border off the west coast.
President Lee Myung-Bak called an emergency meeting of security ministers as his Prime Minister Chung Un-Chan accused the North of making a "direct attack" on a high-speed patrol craft.
"There was no damage on our side while a North Korean patrol boat engulfed in flame sailed back (across the border)," Chung told parliament.
He described the clash, which follows recent peace overtures from the North, as unplanned and urged people to stay calm.
Some analysts, however, said Pyongyang may be sending President Barack Obama a message, eight days before he arrives in South Korea as part of an Asian tour.
The Joint Chiefs of Staff said the South's boat sent several warning signals after the North's boat crossed the border, but the intruder held its course.
After the South's boat fired warning shots, "the North's side opened fire, directly aiming at our ship. Then our ship responded by firing back, forcing the North Korean boat to return to the north," the statement said.
"There were no casualties on our side. We are on the lookout for any further provocations by the North," it said.
"We express our strong protest to North Korea and urge it to prevent a recurrence of such incidents," said Brigadier-General Lee Ki-Sik of the Joint Chiefs of Staff.
He said the two sides exchanged fire for two minutes from a distance of 3,200 metres. The North fired about 50 rounds, 15 of which hit the South Korean boat.
The border known as the Northern Limit Line (NLL) has always been a potential flashpoint and was the scene of bloody naval clashes in 1999 and 2002.
The North's navy last month accused South Korea of sending warships across the line to stir tensions, and said the "reckless military provocations" could trigger clashes.
General Lee said the North breached the NLL 22 times this year. But this was the first time the South had to fire warning shots because the patrol boat kept intruding despite five warning signals.
North Korea's military, however, told its South Korean counterpart to apologise for a "grave armed provocation" and said Seoul's ships had opened fire while its craft was north of the border.
In a report on Pyongyang's official media, the North said its boat "lost no time to deal a prompt retaliatory blow at the provokers".
Kim Yong-Hyun, a professor at Dongguk University, said he thought it likely the incident was an intentional provocation from the North because its boat ignored warnings from the South.
"This might be an intentional clash aimed at heightening tension ahead of Obama's trip," Kim told YTN television.
"I believe North Korea is trying to show Obama the volatility of the peninsula. North Korea has demanded a peace pact be signed with the US to replace the truce agreement (which ended the 1950-53 war)."
The NLL was drawn up unilaterally by United Nations forces at the end of the Korean War in 1953. The North has never recognised it and wants it drawn further to the south.
- AFP/sc
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