NKorea, UN Command meet amid rising tension

SEOUL, South Korea — Military officers from North Korea and the American-led UN Command met Tuesday for talks on the deadly sinking of a South Korean warship, a day after the North escalated already-high tensions by firing a barrage of artillery into the sea. North Korea fired about 110 rounds Monday near its disputed western sea border with South Korea, shortly after Seoul ended five-day naval drills staged in response to the March sinking of its Cheonan warship. North Korea has been blamed for the vessel's destruction, which killed 46 sailors. The North denies it torpedoed the Cheonan and has warned any punishment would trigger war. Colonel-level officers from the US-led UN Command and North Korea held talks at the border village of Panmunjom to discuss the sinking, said US spokesman David Oten. It was the fourth such meeting since last month. The previous three ended with no major breakthroughs. The artillery shells fired Monday landed in the North's waters and caused no damage, according to Seoul's Joint Chiefs of Staff. South Korea warned Pyongyang over the firing by radio. A US State Department spokesman denounced North Korea's firing and joked it "resulted in a lot of dead fish." P.J. Crowley also said, "We're likely to see more provocations." He said it was unclear what North Korea was "trying to achieve through this ongoing chest-thumping." Relations between the rival Koreas are at their lowest point in recent years. Ties worsened last week when South Korea launched large-scale naval training in response to the sinking, prompting its communist neighbor to warn it would counter the maneuvers with a "strong physical retaliation." The South Korean naval drills, which ended on Monday afternoon, followed large-scale joint military exercises with the US last month off the east coast. The South Korean drills included exercises near the western sea border where the warship exploded and sank. The area is also where the navies of the rival Koreas have fought three bloody gunbattles since 1999. The Cheonan's sinking was considered South Korea's worst military disaster since the Korean War, which ended in a cease-fire in 1953. No formal peace treaty was ever signed, and more than 28,000 US troops remain stationed in the South with a vow to protect its critical ally. — AP