09-151.pdf

claimed: “North Korea’s claim to establish a new Maritime Border Line
has no value at all and cannot be negotiated.”
Both parties repeated their claims at the tenth and eleventh
round of talks held on August 17 and September 1, both requested by
the KPA. At the tenth meeting, the KPA criticized the UNC for
conducting the “Ûlchi Focus Lens 99” exercise from August 16 to 28,
which it regarded as a preparation for war, and urged an immediate
halt. The UNC responded that military exercises are not mentioned in
the Armistice Agreement and are entirely unrelated. The regular exercises
were made to protect the Republic of Korea. At the eleventh round, the
UNC declared that the “Ûlchi Focus Lens 99” exercise, which had
been announced in advance, had ended without any violence committed.
The UNC also hoped that to avoid misunderstandings the KPA
would announce major exercises in advance and regarded the North’s
rhetorics with regard to the exercises as groundless. On September 2,
North Korea unilaterally declared a military demarcation line in the
West Sea, invalidating the NLL. It was followed on March 23, 2000, by
“The Order for Navigation to the Five Islands in the West Sea” that
opened only two passages two nautical miles wide to the islands. 326
Notably, fewer accusations of war preparations were made than
before.
Besides General Officers’ talks, to transform the armistice
regime, which was widely considered to be inadequate to guarantee
secure peace in the Korean peninsula, into a peace regime, President
Kim Young Sam and President Bill Clinton at the summit meeting held
326_ Hapch’am chôngbo ponbu, op. cit., 2001, pp. 117, 118, 119, 120, 121, 126, 141;
Keum, ibid., pp. 24-5, 26, 28-32; Yi, “Pug-ûi yoksim, Nam-ûi chosim ...NLL-ûn
puranhada,” May 2006, p. 176. Original quotation marks.
422 Peace-keeping in the Korean Peninsula