Chinese crabbers leave Yellow Sea in fear of Nork attack

Times:

It was obvious that something was up when the Chinese scarpered. One day there were scores of their fishing boats hoovering up the valuable crabs from the richest of the fishing grounds in the Yellow Sea.

Overnight all but a handful were gone.

Anywhere else the locals would have been glad to have the crabs to themselves but this is no ordinary fishing ground. A few yards from here is the maritime boundary between South and North Korea. “The Chinese fish here because the North Koreans allow them,” a coastguard official said. “If they’ve gone it’s because they’ve had some kind of warning.”

An imminent missile launch into the sea? An armed incursion of North Korean ships? A full-scale invasion of Yeonpyeong, the small South Korean island hard up against the maritime boundary? Too much blood has already been shed in these waters for anyone to risk taking any chances, and for the past week South Korea has been dispatching reinforcements.

No one will discuss numbers for security reasons but sailors and marines, as well as members of the Sea Special Attack Team, the coastguard’s commando force, have been arriving to join the several hundred troops already on Yeonpyeong.

These waters, around the Northern Limit Line, have become the most tense and dangerous patch of sea in Asia.

The rest of the world is pondering what to do about North Korea’s underground test of a nuclear bomb eight days ago. Yesterday fresh reports emerged that the nation was transporting its most advanced missile, capable of reaching Alaska, to a launch site. David Miliband, the Foreign Secretary, said that Britain and other members of the UN Security Council were drafting new sanctions against Pyongyang.

In South Korea the most pressing question is: what next? The nuclear test was just the most alarming in a series of growing North Korean provocations....

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Precedent suggests that if there is still further mischief it may take place here in the Yellow Sea. Twice before, in the past decade, there have been naval battles between North and South off Yeonpyeong island — on both occasions in June during the peak fishing season for blue crab.

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There seems to be a sense among the security establishment in the South that the country has pussyfooted around the North for long enough and that, with Seoul’s undoubted superiority in equipment, supplies and training, it is time to assert itself. “If they fire two bullets at us we will fire three or four back,” a government official told The Times. “If they fire on us from a shore battery we will take it out.”

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This is just more evidence that the South Koreans are fed up with the North Korean belligerence. It is also a good indication for war a war between the two might start. China may just want to avoid being caught in the crossfire if there is a flare up. I doubt it has been given a heads up since the other events seem to have taken the government by surprise.