By Ryu Jin
Staff Reporter

President Roh Moo-hyun on Monday ordered a further investigation into possible communication problems in the military’s chain of command in regards to last week’s shooting incident involving a North Korean patrol boat.

``The most vital thing in the military’s report to the president and the people about security is correctness,’’ Roh was quoted as telling his aides. ``I think the recently completed probe is not sufficient enough.’’

Roh made the remarks after receiving a briefing early in the morning about the result of the three-day inquiry by a joint investigation team launched last Friday with nine officials from the Defense Ministry, National Intelligence Service and other relevant government agencies.

``The question is not whether the navy coped with the situation properly or not,’’ Roh said. ``What matters is whether the situation was reported properly in accordance with the chain of command.’’

The military’s ``false report’’ on the naval incident, in the meantime, developed into a hot political issue as the ruling party openly demanded a thorough military reshuffle describing the case as ``disapproval of the president’s leadership.’’

Several Uri Party lawmakers called for stern punitive measures against military officers who failed to properly report the situation, which might have led to a bloody gun battle in the West Sea.

Rep. Kim Hee-sun said in a party meeting that the military’s failure to report such crucial information to the president or the supreme commander of the nation’s armed forces is a ``matter that can never be tolerated.’’

She also took issue with the political inclination of some of the military’s top brass by saying, ``the current leadership of general-grade officers originated from authoritarian military regimes in the past when they were colonels and lieutenant colonels.’’

Lee Mi-kyung, another ruling party legislator, stressed that such distortion of defense-related information cannot be overlooked, calling for harsh punishment of those responsible.

Rep. Lee Sang-deuk of the opposition Grand National Party, a member of the National Assembly’s National Defense Committee, also accused the military of its slack discipline saying, ``such cases can never be seen in military operations.’’

On Wednesday, a ship _ identified at the time by the Navy as North Korean _ crossed the Northern Limit Line (NLL), the sea border between the two Koreas. South Korea’s Navy responded with a 1,200-ton patrol craft and two smaller high-speed boats to repel it and later fired two shots to warn off the intruder after trying to contact North Korean military officers.

Following the incident, the South’s naval command faced criticism for failing to report that North Korea’s navy had actually contacted the South at the time. Uninformed of the fact, the South’s Joint Chiefs of Staff (JCS) announced that the Navy fired warning shots because the North didn’t respond to its repeated calls.

The North lodged a complaint on Thursday evening and the Defense Ministry apologized Friday for misrepresenting the events. Before that, President Roh was unaware of the incident. An inquiry was immediately launched at the president’s instruction into possible problems of communications in the military’s chain of command.

With South Korea’s military trapped by the scandalous event, Pyongyang upped its rhetoric against Seoul over the disputed western sea border, flatly denying the latter’s claims that its patrol ship violated the NLL as ``a total fake.’’

``The false report runs counter to efforts to ease tensions over the maritime border through rounds of bilateral military talks,’’ the (North) Korean Central Broadcasting Station said in a statement on Sunday.

A de facto inter-Korean sea border, the NLL has been a constant source of conflict between the Koreas in recent years. Navy ships from the two sides clashed in 1999 and 2002 during the crab-catching season, causing heavy casualties on both sides. The North Korean patrol boat that crossed the NLL last Wednesday was later found to be the ``Tungsangod 684,’’ which launched preemptive attacks against South Korea’s naval ships in the 2002 clash that left six seamen dead and 18 others wounded.

Last month, the militaries of the two Koreas agreed in rare general-grade talks to find ways to ease tension along the poorly marked maritime border. As concrete measures to avoid such accidental clashes, the two sides agreed to have their navies share the same radio frequency, set up a telephone hotline and exchange information on illegal fishing activities by China.

The North, however, refuses to accept the NLL, claiming it was unilaterally drawn by the U.S.-led United Nations Command after the 1950-53 Korean War, which without a peace treaty, technically left the two Koreas in a state of war.

Analysts said the North’s repeated violation of the NLL is aimed at nullifying the disputed border or at least having the dispute afloat, which could be used as a bargaining chip in the future.

In a separate development, a North Korean boat crossed the NLL Sunday morning, according to the JCS. South Korea’s Navy broadcast five warnings and the boat returned to its waters after 35 minutes of intrusion.

In a related development, the third round of working-level inter-Korean military talks anticipated Monday was canceled as Pyongyang failed to respond to Seoul’s proposal to hold the meeting in a South Korean city, the Defense Ministry said.

In the meantime, President Roh gave rare instructions to the South Korean military to conduct the thorough investigation. Some senior officials are particularly worried about the possibility that Chong Wa Dae might think the military’s false report was intentional.

Experts have pointed out that there are a number of people in the military who are not in favor of the recent developments in inter-Korean relations and the changed mood between the two Koreas.

Sources at Chong Wa Dae said the military could face a massive reshuffle depending on the results of the investigation, given the presidential office’s accumulated dissatisfaction with scandalous events involving high-profile military officials.

jinryu@koreatimes.co.kr