Vessels hit as two Koreas in brief naval clash

By Jon Herskovitz and Kim Yeon-hee

SEOUL (Reuters) - Navies from the rival Koreas exchanged gunfire for the first time in seven years on Tuesday, damaging vessels on both sides and raising tension just days before U.S. President Barack Obama travels to Asia.

North Korea has often used military action to force its way onto the agenda of major diplomatic events and has been seeking direct talks with Obama's administration while alarming global powers by last week saying it had produced more arms-grade plutonium.

The United States will announce in the next few days whether it will start direct talks with the North which could kickstart a fresh round of talks with regional powers on nuclear disarmament, a U.S. official said earlier.

South Korea denounced what it said was an incursion by a North Korean patrol vessel into its territorial waters in the Yellow Sea that sparked a brief firefight near the spot where the two Koreas have had two deadly conflicts in the past decade.

There were no casualties in the incident that left a South Korean vessel pockmarked with about a dozen gunshots and apparently a North Korean patrol vessel heavily damaged, military officials said.

"North Korea is taking this aggressive stance to show they're not backing down on their security," said Yang Moo-jin, a professor at the South's University of North Korean Studies.

The North's sabre rattling is often seen by analysts as an means to increase its leverage in negotiations.

It accused the South of starting the latest fray.