Islands bypassed by history's tide

Published on Saturday 2 February 2008 19:04

ON A clear day, one can stand on Baengnyeong Island and see the coast of North Korea 10 miles away. The channel could be crossed in just half an hour by boat.

But for Chang Hyung-soo, a 64-year-old retired diver, the narrow strip of water is what separates him from his hometown. It also separates him from three of his friends who were lost in fog while fishing and taken to North Korea three decades ago.

What stretches before Chang is a divide hardened by a half century of mistrust.

"One day, they say, North and South Korean boats will fish peacefully together in this water," he said from a wind-battered hilltop, gazing at the land his family fled during the 1950-53 Korean War.

"But we should never give up any of our waters to the North Koreans. If we start doing that, they'll claim this island too."

Baengnyeong is South Korea's northernmost island. Fishermen proudly call it "South Korea's left-hand uppercut into North Korea's chin".

Since their leaders met in October, North and South Korea have been trying something unprecedented: creating joint fishing zones in long-disputed waters near Baengnyeong and four other South Korean islands near the North Korean coast. But subsequent talks on the issue have made little progress because of North Korea's refusal to accept a sea boundary between those islands and North Korea, drawn unilaterally by the United Nations at the end of the fighting.

The two Koreas have made major strides toward reconciliation along their land border. But the five islands present an especially tough challenge for the next South Korean president, Lee Myung-bak, because without peace there, an easing of tensions will remain difficult. Lee has said he will oppose any deal that will compromise the UN boundary.

"We must keep outside the range of North Korean shore guns," said Park Moon-il, captain of the ferry Democracy 5, explaining why after leaving Inchon he makes a 135-mile detour around North Korean coastal waters to reach Baengnyeong. "If we were allowed to beeline to Baengnyeong, we could shorten our trip by an hour and save four drums of fuel."

From a distance, Baengnyeong looks like any other peaceful island. But up close, its snowy hills are pockmarked by artillery positions and bunkers, where marines and villagers will dig in if North Korea showers the island with rockets and artillery shells in the initial hours of a war. Signs on the barbed-wire fences along the shoreline say "Mines".

There are 4,900 civilians on the 20-square-mile island and nearly as many marines.

Offshore, navy vessels shadow fishing boats, ensuring that they do not stray into North Korean waters, and guard the disputed sea border. Fishermen must return home before sundown. Anyone who ventures onto the beaches after dusk risks being shot.

The five islands have helped contain North Korean naval expansion into waters west of Seoul, as well as securing rich supplies of fish and crab.

But since 1973, North Korean gunboats have regularly violated the UN boundary. After a 1999 clash, North Korea declared a new border deep inside waters controlled by the South.

Residents bristle at the North Korean claims. "Let them come," said Cho Sook-ja, 68, who runs a waterfront restaurant. "I will rush out even if I have to fight with a poker."

But as relations between the Koreas have eased, many on the island say they feel they have been left behind. Ubiquitous mines and the four-hour detour impeded efforts to develop the island as a tourist destination.

To make matters worse, hundreds of Chinese fishing boats, after paying fees to the North Korean navy, have sailed into waters between their islands and North Korea in recent years while the South Korean fishermen have been restricted to waters close to their own shores.

"A few weeks ago, a 93-year-old man came here to take a last look at his hometown across the channel before he died," said Chang, the retired diver. "But he could see nothing because of the fog. I still remember the old man's tears of disappointment."