Korean Tensions Heighten: North Deploys Assets, South Refuses to Back Down

North Korea ratcheted up tensions with its U.S.-backed neighbor on Monday, moving special forces on amphibious landing craft closer to the frontline, one day after reports that most of its submarines eveidently had been forward deployed.

The movement of the landing craft and special forces to a base less than 40 miles from the Northern Limit Line maritime border – which Pyongyang does not recognize – was reported by South Korea’s official Yonhap news agency, citing military sources.

On Sunday, defense ministry officials said that about 50 of North Korea’s 70-strong submarine fleet, an unusually large number, had left their bases and their whereabouts were unknown.

(Investigators blamed a torpedo launched from a North Korean submarine for the 2010 sinking of a South Korean Navy ship, which cost the lives of 46 sailors.)

The developments came as senior officials from the two Koreas held lengthy talks in the Demilitarized Zone village of Panmunjom, aimed at defusing a crisis described as the worst of its kind in at least two years.

Since the 1950-53 Korea War ended without a formal peace agreement, the two Koreas remain officially at war. U.S. troops have been stationed on the peninsula ever since to help defend South Korea against aggression from the North.

The Stalinist regime has a long history of brinkmanship – escalating tensions, then seeking concessions in return for easing them.

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