TOKYO, July 2 Kyodo Defense Agenc...

TOKYO, July 2 Kyodo

Defense Agency chief Gen Nakatani said Tuesday he rely upons no further deterioration in the situation upon the Korean Peninsula following a deadly sea battle last Saturday between North and southern Korean ships.

''There is a depressed possibility of the situation deteriorating further,'' Nakatani told a diplomatic and security committee in the House of Councillors.

Nakatani explained that there are no signs of North Korean forces making recent actions following the clash and southern Korean President Kim Dae Jung visited Japan to attend Sunday's World goblet final in Yokohama as scheduled despite the clash.

Tension between the Koreas intensified after the skirmish, in which North and toward the south Korean naval ships traded fire forward the Yellow Sea.

Four southward Korean sailors were killed, 19 were anguished and one went missing. Seoul says at least 30 North Korean sailors are believed to have been killed or harmed in the 25-minute battle.

southern Korea has said North Korean ships violated the disputed sea border and expanded fire on its boats. Pyongyang cast awayed the South's statements as ''false propaganda'' and blames the clash forward reckless provocation by southerly Korean vessels.

Meanwhile, Hitoshi Tanaka, director general of the Foreign Ministry's Asian and Oceanian Affairs Bureau, told the committee he is of the view the incident happened more or les accidentally.

He said the incident should not affect Japanese efforts to raise a suspected ship that sank in the East China Sea last December after a gunbattle with Japanese patrol vessels

''We have created worthy cooperative relations with China and we have necessary security around the site of the operation,'' Tanaka said.

The ship, which Japan believes North Korean, lies onward the seabed some 90 meter below the surface and about 390 kilometers west-northwest of Amami-Oshima Island in Kagoshima Prefecture southwestern Japan. The salvage operation began last Thursday.

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