S. Korea Reports Sinking Sub From North

South Korean military forces said they sank a suspected North Korean submarine in a shootout in coastal waters shortly before dawn today. The body of one crewman--who the authorities said had a hand grenade in his pocket--was retrieved near the downed craft. It wasn’t clear whether other crew members were aboard.

The incident was the second in six months in which a suspected North Korean submarine, the type of vessel often deployed in spy missions, has been spotted off the South Korean coast. It comes at a time of particularly heightened tensions between North Korea and the world: The politically isolated country has refused to allow international inspectors to tour a suspected nuclear arms complex under construction.

The latest skirmish could also temper South Korean President Kim Dae Jung’s domestically controversial “sunshine policy” toward North Korea, in which he has advocated exchanges and rapprochement between the two Koreas rather than hard-line hostilities. The two Koreas share the world’s most heavily fortified border.

“The fact that North Korea continues to gather intelligence at the east, west and south coast means that it is not convinced that South Korea’s sunshine policy is not a disguised plot, so they continue preparing for the worst,” said military expert Jee Man Won in Seoul.

According to South Korean military reports, the submarine, capable of traveling at 40 to 50 knots above water and 10 to 12 knots below, was spotted shortly before midnight Thursday about two kilometers off the port of Yosu, about 200 miles south of Seoul. South Korean helicopters, fighter planes and speedboats chased the vessel for about five hours.

About 5:30 a.m, the submarine began firing at military forces, according to Maj. Kim Jung Woo, a spokesman for South Korea’s Joint Chiefs of Staff. The South Korean forces retaliated, and the submarine was sunk, he said.

The body of the crew member, who appears to have drowned, was found by divers in deep water near the submerged vessel. The submarine, which can accommodate up to four crew members, remains submerged, spokesman Kim said.

In June, South Korea captured a North Korean submarine and found nine bodies with wounds that suggested that four of the crew had executed the other five and then killed themselves to avoid being taken alive.

Chi Jung Nam of the Times’ Seoul Bureau contributed to this report.