U.S. agrees to help stand watch over salvage work

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U.S. agrees to help stand watch over salvage work

The United States agreed Thursday to provide support to the South Korean Navy in its planned effort next week to raise a Korean patrol boat sunk by North Korean gunfire in the Yellow Sea near the military demarcation line.

The chairman of the South Korean Joint Chiefs of Staff, Lee Nam-shin, met with the commander of U.S. troops here, General Leon LaPorte, Tuesday afternoon to discuss the details of the planned operation. Korean defense officials said the salvage work would begin Tuesday; U.S. and Korean military forces will be in the area to guard against any reaction by North Korea that could threaten the work.

The concern about another provocation by the North stemmed from a warning on July 9 by Pyeongyang that Seoul must give it advance notice of any salvage operation. The North, which does not recognize the Northern Limit Line imposed by the United Nations after the Korean War, claimed that the waters where the ship sank are North Korean territorial waters. The North Korean military has also been conducting live-fire exercises involving its coastal guns, whose effective range includes the waters where the salvage work will be conducted.

The United States reportedly agreed to deploy an AWACS aircraft, a plane equipped with battle management radar and communications facilities, near the peninsula to support the heightened state of preparedness that will be in effect during the salvage operation.

The United Nations Command here will complete its investigation of the incident while the salvage work is going on. A navy officer said the salvage work will take about two months; there are strong currents in the area and divers will be able to do their job for only about an hour a day, when the current is at its weakest.

by Lee Chul-hee

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