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DPRK opens

sea border to

RoK fishermen

BEIJING: North Korea is to open its eastern sea border to South Korean fishermen from next month, negotiators from the two sides announced in Beijing on Saturday. The two countries are also to hold talks on South Korea allowing fleets from the communist north into its waters, a spokesman for the South Korean delegation said.

The pair fought a bloody sea battle on their Yellow Sea border, to the west of the Korean peninsula, last June.

The firefight, in which at least one communist torpedo boat was sunk, erupted after North Korean military and fishing vessels repeatedly strayed over the border at the height of the area's lucrative crab-fishing season.

The North has never recognised the line, imposed after the 1950-53 Korean War, and proposed a new boundary which would allow it to swallow up five South Korean islands and more rich fishing grounds.

The two sides remain technically at war after agreeing an armistice but never a formal peace treaty following the Korean War.

In Beijing Saturday, Kim Yong-Hae of the Hall of Korea Fisherman Union from South Korea said: "As far opening up southern waters to northern fishermen, we will talk about that later. "We hope these talks will start as soon as possible."ÑAFP