S Korean navy fires on Northern boat

There have been naval clashes in the area before

A South Korean navy boat has fired warning shots at a North Korean boat that crossed a disputed maritime border, officials have said.

The North Korean boat stayed in South Korean waters for 14 minutes and immediately retreated after a South Korean warship, accompanied by four speedboats, approached and fired warning shots, South Korea's Joint Chiefs of Staff said in a statement.

	Northern Limit Line Declared by UN in 1953 Not recognised by North Regularly breached by North's navy See also: Unresolved conflict

The incident in the Yellow Sea came amid tension over North Korea's alleged admission that it has developed nuclear weapons.

The area off the west coast of the Korean peninsula has been the scene of occasional clashes between the navies of the two countries, including an incident in June in which five South Korean soldiers and an unknown number of North Koreans were killed.

North Korea quickly apologised over the June incident, and since then North Korean officials have held meetings with the supervisory United Nations Command, in an attempt to avoid any repetition.

In Wednesday's incident, the North Korean vessel was thought to have been chasing about 20 Chinese fishing boats that were operating illegally in the area, the South Korean statement said.

A similar incident happened in the same area on Saturday.

Nuclear admission

South Korea's President Kim Dae-jung has been trying to promote reconciliation, but recently there has been international concern that North Korea may be developing nuclear weapons despite agreeing not to under a 1994 treaty with the US.

In the 1994 Agreed Framework, North Korea agreed to halt production of nuclear weapons in return for the US and its allies building two light-water reactors for power generation, and providing fuel oil.

The US is in no rush to write off all aspects of the anti-nuclear deal, despite cutting off US-funded supplies of fuel oil, a top US official said on Tuesday.

"The US view on the Agreed Framework is that the North Koreans said it was nullified, and we guess it was nullified," Assistant Secretary of State James Kelly told reporters in Washington.

"But we are not in any rush to make decisions on all aspects of it. This is an agreement that has acted for some eight years. It has a number of different elements to it."

Construction of the reactor plants is mainly funded by Japan and South Korea, who are both anxious to salvage a deal with North Korea.

The South Korean president, who is to leave office after December elections, has made his "sunshine policy" of engaging with the North a key plank of his presidency.

It was Mr Kelly who last month visited North Korea and said the Stalinist state had admitted developing nuclear weapons.