N. Korea continues commercial shipping after naval skirmish in Yellow Sea

(ATTN: UPDATES with importer's comment, departure time, minor edits in paras 2-5)
By Kim Hyun
SEOUL, Nov. 16 (Yonhap) -- A North Korean cargo ship discharged a load of sand in
a South Korean port on Monday in the North's first commercial trip to the South
across the volatile inter-Korean maritime border since last week's naval
skirmish.
The voyage of the Kumbit-ho suggests Pyongyang's intent to carry on profitable
inter-Korean business projects, keeping them apart from military warnings toward
the South.
Officials from Seoul's Unification Ministry said the Kumbit-ho arrived in the
western port of Incheon on Saturday as the first North Korean ship to come across
the Yellow Sea since the naval confrontation. After unloading 2,100 tons of
silica sand Monday morning, the ship will return to its port of call in Kumsa or
to the nearby port of Haeju, on the west coast at around 6 p.m., they said.
"The ship has been on stand-by and was berthed at the wharf at 9 a.m. this
morning, because berthing is sometimes not available on weekends," Lee
Kyu-hyeong, a ministry official, said.
The silica sand the Kumbit-ho brought is to be delivered to an Incheon-based
trading company called Chun Do Co., the officials said. A staffer with the firm
said on customary anonymity that it "regularly" brings in North Korean sand on
orders from local construction firms.
South Korea has imported massive amounts of North Korean sand since the historic
first inter-Korean summit in 2000. But import restrictions were recently
strengthened amid suspicions that profits from sand shipments end up in the
pockets of the North Korean military.
Last year, sand was the North's largest export item to the South with its trade
volume worth US$73.35 million.
Another North Korean commercial ship was set to return home later Monday,
officials said. The Seonggwangryeon-ho, which arrived through the Yellow Sea days
before the naval skirmish, will return via a different course along the East Sea,
they said. It delivered 4,200 tons of coal to South Korea's eastern port of
Pohang.
Tensions rose after the two countries' navies exchanged gunfire on Tuesday for
the first time in seven years. The South suffered no casualties, but one North
Korean soldier was killed and three others wounded, according to earlier South
Korean reports.
North Korea has argued the South deliberately initiated the skirmish and warned
of "merciless" military actions to defend its self-claimed sea border.
The western sea border was not clearly marked under the 1953 armistice agreement
that ended the Korean War. The Northern Limit Line, the de-facto western sea
border, was unilaterally drawn by the U.S.-led U.N. Command that fought on South
Korea's side at the end of the war. North Korea has never recognized it and has
demanded the border be drawn further south.
hkim@yna.co.kr
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