Special to WorldTribune.com

By Donald Kirk, East-Asia-Intel.com

For several hours on June 29, 2002, images of warships in the West or Yellow Sea filled television screens in Korea.

I was in Seoul watching avidly as reports of a raging battle dominated the news even as South Korea’s beloved Red Devils were about to play Turkey in a match to decide third or fourth place in World Cup 2002.

For me, the day was one of the busiest I have ever had as a journalist. From Seoul, I frantically wrote a story on the West Sea shootout for the New York Times before riding the KTX to Daegu, where I wrote another story for the Times that evening on South Korea’s 3-2 defeat by Turkey. I can’t recall ever having reported and then written at length on two such hugely different topics, from such widely separated datelines, in one day for the same paper.

For many Koreans, incredibly, the question was which was more important, the West Sea naval battle or the World Cup. Yes, six Korean sailors were killed in the shootout, casting a pall but hardly distracting from the final match.

For a time, it seemed as if their sacrifice was almost forgotten as demonstrations boiled over nightly over another terrible tragedy. The deaths of two 13-year-old schoolgirls run over by a 48-ton U.S. army armored vehicle north of Seoul generated a storm of anti-Americanism even as President George W. Bush issued an apology read by the American ambassador and the U.S. Forces Korea commander, General Leon LaPorte, his voice cracking as he uttered heartfelt words of his own.

Kim Dae-Jung, in the last year of his presidency, came out with pro forma condemnation of North Korea for the West Sea battle but did nothing to retaliate for the intrusion.

Soon it was revealed that DJ had told the defense ministry to order commanders not to fire warning shots, to fire only in self-defense, forcing the South Korean navy to rely on loudspeakers and visual signals. Having won the Nobel Peace Prize after flying to Pyongyang to meet Kim Jong-Il in the June 2000 summit, DJ did not want to jeopardize his Sunshine Policy of reconciliation.

With North-South relations as strained as ever, a Korean blockbuster film called ”Northern Limit Line” serves as an important reminder of the historical and current significance of its title. The NLL is the line drawn on maps of the West Sea below which North Korean vessels are banned.

The U.S.-led UN Command, in charge of defense of the South, set the NLL two years after the signing of the truce in Panmunjom that ended the Korean War 62 years ago. North Korea has been challenging the NLL ever since, especially during the crabbing season when North Korean boats dare to venture south in defiance of warnings.

Relegated to the recesses of collective memory, the slaughter of the sailors lives on in this film. Its popularity shows that Koreans not only remember, but care deeply.

The storyline and the portrayal of the sailors is a little labored, perhaps artificial, but their camaraderie and discipline shine through as they navigate the dangerous West Sea before the North Korean vessel challenges them. The ensuing duel, in which dozens of North Koreans are killed before their crippled ship flees, is a reminder not only of the ever-present danger of war but of the foolishness of those who think sweetness and light is really going to appease the North Koreans.

The film doesn’t look for high-level villains, but we feel the frustration when the skipper of the Korean patrol boat gets an order days before the battle to release North Korean fishermen whose boat had strayed south of the line. One of the “fishermen” was the skipper of the ship that later attacked the South Koreans. He was indeed on a fishing expedition ― fishing for a first-hand look at the South Korean patrol boat in the few minutes he was held before his captors were told to set him free.

As I later wrote, “How DJ would respond to the outpouring over the deaths of the two girls and the attack on South Korean boats would say a great deal about his basic outlook.” DJ did not acknowledge any American apologies during the anti-American demonstrations.

For DJ, “Sunshine eclipsed hostility toward the North, seen by his followers at the close of his presidency as less a threat than the Americans with whom he lived in uneasy alliance.”

“Northern Limit Line” is a reality check. North Korean forces regularly confront South Koreans in the West Sea, as in the sinking in 2010 of the corvette the Cheonan with a loss of 46 sailors and then the attack on Yeonpyeong Island, killing two Marines and two contractors.

“Northern Limit Line” should awaken viewers to the dangers. In uncertain times, the sailors on ships out there face hardships and risks that we on shore can only imagine ― or experience vicariously by watching this film.

Columnist Donald Kirk has been covering war and peace in Asia for decades. He’s reachable at kirkdon4343@gmail.com.

  Cheonan, Donald Kirk, Norther Limit LIne, Slaughter on the ‘Northern Limit Line’: A day for war and soccer, WorldTribune.com