S Korea boosts security after clash on high seas

Both sides blame the other for the clash, the worst such incident in three years. It was not clear how many North Korean casualties there were.

‘‘Minister Kim Dong-shin is meeting Leon LaP orte to discuss the clash,’’ a ministry spokesman said by telephone. General La Porte is also Chief of combined South Korean-US forces. The US has 37,000 troops stationed in South Korea to help deter North Korea from repeating a 1950 invasion that started the three-year Korean War.

Separately, US military officials are liaising with South and North Korean officials to set up a special general-level meeting on the incident at the truce village of Panmunjom in the Demilitarised Zone bisecting the Korean peninsula. It is not yet clear when or if that meeting will be held.

The US has condemned the attack as a provocation by North and a senior US official said Washington might delay sending a proposed delegation to North Korea for talks. The meeting between the two allies took place while President Kim Dae-jung was meeting Japanese PM Junichiro Koizumi in Japan to discuss the incident.

‘‘Inter-Korean relations are likely to be strained after the incident, but I don’t think it will last long,’’ a ministry spokesman quoted Unification Minister Jeong Se-hyun as saying.

(Reuters)