Global Courant 2023-04-16 09:38:56
Seoul says it fired warning shots and issued warnings to drive off a North Korean ship that crossed a disputed maritime border.
The South Korean military has fired warning shots to drive off a North Korean ship that had crossed the two countries’ disputed maritime border, officials said.
South Korea’s Joint Chiefs of Staff (JCS) said on Sunday it fired warning shots and issued warnings to return to a North Korean patrol boat that breached the Northern Limit Line (NLL) around 11:00 GMT on Saturday. .
“Our military maintains a decisive battle position while monitoring enemy movements in preparation for possible provocations related to NLL violations by North Korean patrol boats,” the JCS said in a statement.
During the operations, a South Korean patrol vessel came into “light contact” with a nearby Chinese fishing vessel due to poor visibility, resulting in no safety issues but minor injuries to the South Korean crew, the JCS added.
The reported North Korean incursion came as tensions flared over Pyongyang’s ramped up military activity in recent weeks, including the Friday test of a new intercontinental solid-fuel ballistic missile, which experts say would facilitate missile launches without any warning.
Since the 1990s, Pyongyang has disputed the NLL – drafted at the end of the 1950-1953 Korean War – arguing that it should be far to the south.
Last October, the two Koreas exchanged warning shots in western waters, accusing each other of breaking the maritime border in an area where confrontations have often occurred.
Pyongyang has threatened military action as South Korea and the United States have conducted their annual spring exercises since March, which they called a nuclear war rehearsal.
North Korean leader Kim Jong-un this week ordered war deterrents to be strengthened in a “more practical and offensive” way to counter what the isolated country called aggression moves by South Korea and the US.
Seoul and Washington say their exercises are defensive and aimed at deterring Pyongyang.
South Korean officials also say that North Korea has not responded to South Korean calls on a series of cross-border inter-Korean hotlines for more than a week, raising concerns about possible kinetic provocations, as communications on those channels are intended to inadvertently avoid collisions. along the maritime borders of the rivals.
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