DATE=11-15-2000

TYPE=CORRESPONDENT REPORT

NUMBER=2-269259

TITLE=KOREA SHIPS (L-O)

BYLINE=HYUN-SUNG KHANG

DATELINE=SEOUL

CONTENT=

VOICED AT:

INTRO: North Korea has accused South Korean warships of intruding into its territorial waters. It says the South Korean military is trying to upset rapprochement between the two Koreas. But as Hyun-Sung Khang reports from the capital, Seoul, the South rejects charges of a military provocation.

TEXT: North Korea says four South Korean warships, escorting a number of fishing boats, intruded into its waters Tuesday in the Yellow Sea.

According to a report by Pyongyang's Central News Agency, the South Korean vessels retreated after being challenged by navy warships from the North. It says three similar intrusions took place earlier in the month.

Pyongyang has accused the South Korean military of deliberate and premeditated moves to stop rapprochement on the peninsula.

But South Korea's Joint Chiefs of Staffs rejected the allegations. The military says three South Korean guard ships were mobilized after a North Korean patrol ship approached the demarcation line. It says neither side crossed the line.

This latest incident follows a naval clash last year between North and South Korea. More than 30-sailors are thought to have died and a Northern vessel was sunk, after warships from the two sides exchanged fire in a disputed maritime zone separating the two Koreas.

North Korea has long rejected the so-called "Northern Limit Line" in the Yellow Sea, which was unilaterally drawn by the U-N Forces at the end of the Korean War in 1953. That conflict ended in a truce, rather than a peace treaty, which has left the two Koreas technically at war.

Although there have been rapid moves towards reconciliation by the two Koreas, in recent months; South Korea says the North still presents a military threat. (SIGNED)

NEB/HSK/RAE