SEOUL - SOUTH Korea's navy deployed a high-speed patrol boat armed with guided missiles close to the country's tense maritime border with North Korea on Tuesday, vowing to 'punish' any attacking forces.

'The navy's cutting-edge high-speed missile patrol boat, the Yoon Young-ha, is being deployed in the Yellow Sea,' a navy spokesman told reporters.

'Compared with North Korean boats, the Yoon Young-ha is armed with overwhelming fire power,' he said.

The South's navy will 'punish immediately' any North Korean forces attempting provocative acts in the area, he said.

The deployment comes amid high tensions with the North, which has reportedly been using high-speed boats for landing exercises near the western border - twice the site of deadly naval clashes since 1999.

In the most recent skirmish in 2002, six South Korean soldiers died and 18 others were wounded while more than 30 North Korean soldiers were killed or wounded. North Korea wants the border to be drawn further south.

Tensions have been running high since Kim Jong Il's regime tested a nuclear bomb for the second time on May 25 and then launched a series of short-range missiles and renounced the truce that ended the Korean war in 1953.

South Korean and US forces on the peninsula are on heightened alert after the North warned of a possible attack in response to Seoul's decision to join a US-led initiative to stop the spread of weapons of mass destruction.

Pyongyang has also warned it would take 'self-defence measures' in response to any tougher international sanctions, and US and South Korean officials have said the North appears to be preparing to test-fire another long-range missile. -- AFP