This is part of the moves to realize their political and strategic scenarios to preserve the "northern limit line," a dangerous tinderbox to spark confrontation and conflict.

As already publicly recognized, the "northern limit line" is an illegal and ghostlike one unilaterally drawn by the U.S. forces in south Korea.

The U.S. let Clark, the then commander of the "UN Forces", set the "northern limit line" called "Clark line" in the West Sea of Korea in order to check traitor Syngman Rhee's reckless scenario to "advance towards the north single-handed" and prevent a war from breaking out again in pursuance of it and, at the same time, bar south Korean fishermen from going over to the DPRK.

The U.S., therefore, has not yet made public the existence of the "northern limit line" by itself even after the lapse of many years because it was drawn to meet its self-justified interests.

The illegality of the above-said line is clearly proved by the fact that the U.S. made it clear that the line was unilaterally set without a bilateral agreement and in breach of international law through the diplomatic message sent by the then U.S. secretary of State in 1975 and the DPRK-U.S. general-level military talks held in Panmunjom on July 21, 1999.

The U.S. once distributed among the participants in the meeting of the UN Convention on the Law of the Sea Korean maps on which the north-south imaginary boundary line in the West Sea of Korea was set further southward than the "northern limit line" on the basis of the principle of equidistance laid down by the International Law of the Sea.

In 1996, the then defense minister of south Korea said that "the north side's trespassing on the northern limit line is not a violation of Armistice Agreement (AA) as it was drawn by the south side to protect fishing boats."

A provision of the AA stipulates that Paekryong, Taechong, Sochong, Yonphyong and U islands shall be under the control of the commander of the "UN Forces" and all the remaining islands and waters shall be under the DPRK control. And the International Law on the Sea mainly calls for respecting other side's right to 12n mile territorial waters. The south Korean authorities' assertion is nothing but a far-fetched one in the light of the above-said provision and law.

The south Korean authorities' persistent efforts to preserve the above-said line are no more than a subterfuge to find a pretext for escalating the tension of the Korean Peninsula and igniting a new war there.