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  Date / Time: 5/29/2009 8:57 PM UTC

  Chinese boats fear naval clash between North and South Korea
  

  Chinese boats fear naval clash between North and South Korea

  Chinese fishing boats have begun pulling out from the disputed maritime border between North and South Korea amid heightened fears that tensions between the two countries could precipitate a naval clash in the coming days.

   

  By Peter Foster in Beijing
  Last Updated: 12:03PM BST 29 May 2009

  

  South Korean and US troops are on a heightened state of alert after North Korea announced it was abandoning the armistice that ended the 1950-53 Korean War Photo: AFP

  More than half of China's 280-strong fishing fleet had withdrawn from the area around the Northern Limit Line in the Yellow Sea, an area where there were bloody exchanges took place in 1999 and 2002, according to South Korea's Yonhap news agency.

  It was unclear if the vessels, in the area for the short but lucrative crabbing season, were ordered to leave or were acting under their own volition, however it will be seen as a further sign of the growing "war of nerves" on the Korean Peninsular.

   

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  On Thursday US and South Korean troops moved to their highest alert level for three years following North Korea's decision to test a second nuclear bomb last Monday, an act which has drawn international condemnation.

  North Korea, which has also announced its withdrawal from 1953 truce which has kept the peace on the Peninsular since the end of the Korean War, has threatened military retaliation against any interference in its shipping.

  It also condemned South Korea's decision to join the US-led Proliferation Security Initiative that could lead to the "stop and search" of North Korean vessels suspected of carrying weapons of mass destruction as an 'act of war'.

  As tensions continue to rise, lengthy deliberations are continuing at the United Nations in New York where diplomats are trying to broker a unanimous response to Monday's test.

  While the US has called for 'concrete action' against Pyongyang, Russia and China are urging caution, arguing that further, harsh sanctions could destabilise the already fragile Stalinist state of Kim Jong-il.

  A draft resolution was circulated on Wednesday, but a final resolution is now not expected until next week. "This is quite a complicated discussion," Britain's UN ambassador, John Sawers, said after the latest round of talks on Thursday. "We need some time."

  As tensions remained high, the US defence secretary, Robert Gates, travelling to Singapore for regional defence talks, sought to lower the temperature.

  "I don't think that anybody in the (Obama) administration thinks there is a crisis," Gates told reporters aboard his military jet early Friday morning, adding that there were no immediate plans to reinforce the US's 28,000-strong force in South Korea.

  The decision to deploy a squadron of F-22 fighter jets – the most advanced in the US Air Force – to the southern Japan island of Okinawa which has angered North Korea, was said to have been a routine deployment planned four months ago.

  Mr Gates reiterated that the US had no plans for military action against the North, but added that the US had sufficient forces deployed "to deal" with any aggression by Pyongyang.

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