Six South Korean sailors were killed in a skirmish in the Yellow Sea off the west coast of the Korean peninsula in June last year.

Pyongyang's official Korean Central News Agency (KCNA), quoting a navy spokesman, said South Korea planned to provoke another clash and blame it on North Korea. That would provide a pretext for US attack on the Stalinist state, it said.

Pyongyang says Washington is planning a military strike to resolve the nuclear crisis that began with the US disclosure in October that North Korea had admitted to pursuing nuclear weapons despite a 1994 accord to freeze its nuclear program.

The KCNA statement came two days after South Korean warships fired warning shots on North Korean fishing boats they said had crossed the maritime border into South Korean waters.

That was the latest in a serious of violations reported by South Korea of the Northern Limit Line (NLL), the maritime border drawn by the US-led United Nations Command during the 1950-53 Korean War that North Korea refuses to recognize.

The North Korean navy spokesman said the South Korean reports of violations were false and issued a protest at the firing of warning shots, "rattling the nerves of KPA (North Korean) soldiers."

"These disturbing developments remind one of last year when the South Korean military authority dispatched warships to the waters under the North's control in an unbroken chain and sparked a naval conflict ..." the spokesman said.

"The South Korean military authority has already worked out a scenario for another 'West Sea skirmish' and is now staging a prelude to it."

South Korean President Roh Moo-Hyun warned last week that "special" care was needed to prevent maritime incursion from sparking another sea battle.

Disputes over the NLL and its surrounding rich fishing grounds have led to two naval battles in recent years.

An inter-Korean skirmish in June 1999 left up to 30 North Koreans believed killed. That was followed by the June 29 clash last year.

WAR.WIRE