<North and South Korea Trade Fire Across Disputed Sea Border>

  SEOUL, South Korea — North Korea and South Korea fired hundreds of artillery shells across their 1)disputed western sea border on Monday, 2)escalating military tensions a day after the North threatened to conduct more nuclear tests.
South Korean officials said the 3)shells fell harmlessly into the waters, from which 4)naval and fishing boats stayed clear. But the exchange was the most serious episode along that border since an artillery duel in 2010.
Earlier Monday, North Korea told the South that it would 5)conduct live-fire drills in seven zones along the 6)maritime border, which hugs the southern coast of North Korea. Then it 7)rolled artillery and multiple-rocket launchers out of shoreline tunnels and fired 500 shells and projectiles from 12:15 to 3:30 p.m.
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North Korea Vows to Use ‘New Form’ of Nuclear TestMARCH 30, 2014 U.N. Condemns North Korean TestMARCH 27, 2014 About 100 of them flew across the disputed border and fell into South Korean-controlled waters near Baengnyeong Island, said Kim Min-seok, a spokesman for the South Korean Ministry of National Defense. Baengnyeong, a South Korean marine garrison, is 10 miles from the North’s southwestern tip.
8)In retaliation,South Korean marines fired K-9 self-propelled artillery, 9)pounding
North Korean waters north of the 10)disputed sea border with 300 shells, Mr. Kim said.
11)Residents of the five South Korean border islands hurried into bomb shelters. South Korea 12)suspended ferry service to the islands and ordered fishing boats near the border to return to port.
“This is a 13)premeditated provocation to test our will to defend the maritime border, and if the North provokes again using our response today as an excuse, we will act decisively,” Mr. Kim said.
14)Artillery exchanges in the disputed waters are not 15)unprecedented, but rising military tensions indicated that after months of relative calm, hostilities between the two Koreas have begun ratcheting up again. They raised fears that the often-repeated cycle of peace overtures followed by military provocations was resuming on the Korean Peninsula.
16)“Pyongyang prefers to strike when it sees Washington as weak or distracted, beset by bigger problems,” Lee Sung-yoon, a North Korea expert at the Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy at Tufts University, said, referring to the North’s capital.
President Obama 17)“is seen as wavering on Russia and Syria,” he said. “It would be a good time to 18)raise the stakes once more with a nuclear or 19)long-range missile test , as Pyongyang has 20)intimated in recent days.”
Citing as a provocation joint military exercises Washington and Seoul started in late February, North Korea has 21)test-fired a series of rockets and short- and 22)midrange ballistic missiles in recent weeks, prompting the 23)United Nations Security Council to warn last week of new action against the country, which is already under 24)heavy sanctions.

On Sunday, Pyongyang threatened 25)“a new form of nuclear test” and warned that its military would conduct drills aimed at improving its ability to attack mid- and long-range targets with 26)“more diversified nuclear deterrence” and “with a variety of striking power.”
The two sides in the Korean War never agreed on a western sea border when the war ended in a cease-fire in 1953. South Korea tries to defend the so-called northern limit line, which was unilaterally declared by the United Nations. North Korea, however, claims another line farther south.
Today, the western waters are the most dangerous areas along the border. 27)A string of South Korean islands , guarded by marines and heavy artillery, lies just south of the maritime border and within range of the North.
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The waters were the scene of 28)several naval skirmishes in recent years. In 2010, North Korea fired hundreds of artillery rounds into disputed waters, some falling south of the northern line. Later that year, it shelled one of the South Korean islands, killing four people and prompting the South to retaliate with its own barrage against North Korean gun positions.
The latest hostilities came as North Korea was preparing for major anniversaries, like the April 15 birthday of Kim Il-sung, the deceased grandfather of the current leader, Kim Jong-un, and the April 25 anniversary of the North Korean military.
29)The regime traditionally uses such events to bolster internal solidarity, sometimes with the aid of missile and nuclear tests and other provocations.
Kim Jong-un, who came to power after the death of his father, Kim Jong-il, in 2011, has 30)“turned out to be more of a hard-liner and far more bellicose in external relations than his father,” said Cheong Seong-chang, a North Korea expert at the Sejong Institute of South Korea.
On Monday, an editorial in the Rodong Sinmun, the official organ of the ruling Workers’ Party in North Korea, 31)urged the country not to succumb to “American nuclear blackmail.” There was no sign of an imminent nuclear test, but the South Korean military said it was operating an emergency response system to promptly handle North Korean provocations.
North Korea has conducted three 32)underground nuclear tests since 2006.

1) 해안 분계선
2) 군사적 긴장이 고조되고 있다.
3) 포탄이 물속으로 피해 없이 떨어졌다.
4) 해군과 어선이 멀리 떨어져있는
5) 폭탄 실험 훈련을 실행하다
6) 해안 경계선
7) 군함을 띄우고 해안 터널 밖으로 수십발의 로켓을 발사했다
8) 보복으로
9) 맹공격하다
10) 분쟁 해안 경계선
11) 5명의 남한 거주민들을 폭탄 대피소로 급히 대피시켰다.
12) 나룻배를 띄우다
13) 미리 계획된 도발
14) 군사 맞대응
15) 전례가 없는
16) 평양은 워싱턴이 근래 들어 보다 더 큰 문제로 주위가 분산되고 힘들어 할 때 약한 틈을 타서 한번 강타하고 싶어한다.
17) 러시아와 시리아에 대하여 갈팡질팡 하고 있다.
18) 못 박다
19) 장거리 미사일 테스트
20) 선언하다
21) 로켓을 연이어 실험 발사하다
22) 장거리 탄도 미사일
23) 유엔 안보리 위원회
24) 무거운 제재
25) 핵실험의 새로운 형태
26) 좀 더 다양해진 핵 제지
27) 남한의 섬 지역들
28) 여러 번의 해안 소 충돌
29) 정치제도
30) 그의 아버지보다 더 강경책을 수행하고 훨씬 더 외부에 호전적이다.
31) 미국의 핵 공격에 굴복하지 말아야 한다고 주장했다.
32) 지하 핵 실험

By Choe Sang-Hun
Published: March 31, 2014
Source: The New York Times