North Korea to Suspend Naval Hot Line With South

SEOUL, South Korea — By CHOE SANG-HUN
Published: May 27, 2010
North Korea said Thursday that it was cutting off a naval hot line that was intended to prevent clashes near its disputed sea border with South Korea. Meanwhile, the South conducted a large naval drill in a show of force.
Cutting the link, established in 2004 after deadly skirmishes in 1999 and 2002, raises the chances of an armed clash in the tense waters off the western coast of the Korean Peninsula — something the North has said could happen any time, particularly now that the South has officially accused it of sinking one of its warships in March.
“We will immediately deliver a physical strike at anyone intruding across our maritime demarcation line,” the North’s state-run news agency KCNA quoted a senior military official as saying, referring to the North’s self-proclaimed sea border, which juts deeply into South Korean waters....