Global Courant 2023-04-16 08:41:08
SEOUL, South Korea (AP) — The South Korean military says it fired warning shots to repel a North Korean patrol vessel that temporarily crossed the country’s disputed western maritime border while pursuing a Chinese fishing boat.
The North Korean patrol boat crossed the so-called Northern Limit Line around 11 a.m. Saturday while chasing the Chinese boat in waters near the South Korean island of Baekryeong, but immediately retreated after a South Korean naval vessel fired warning shots, the Joint Chiefs said. Chiefs of Staff of South Korea. Sunday.
While there was no gunfight between the North and South Korean ships, the South Korean high-speed ship collided with the Chinese boat as it responded to the intrusion amid poor visibility, leaving some of the South Korean sailors bruised and others injured. caused minor injuries. .
The Joint Chiefs of Staff said the South Korean military is closely monitoring North Korean military activities as it prepares for various possibilities of provocations.
South Korea’s navy has often fired warning shots to repel North Korean ships crossing the country’s poorly marked maritime border, but there have also been some deadly clashes over the years. South Korea blames North Korea for an attack on a South Korean warship that killed 46 sailors in 2010, but the North denies responsibility.
Saturday’s raid came amid heightened tensions in the region as the pace of both North Korean weapons demonstrations and joint US-South Korean military exercises to counter the North Korean threat has intensified in a tit-for-tat cycle.
North Korea staged one of its most provocative military demonstrations in years last week by making a test launch of what it described a solid fuel intercontinental ballistic missilewhich, if perfected, could potentially give the North a more powerful and harder-to-detect weapon aimed at the mainland United States.
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.
The US and South Korean militaries conducted their largest field exercises in years last month, holding separate joint naval and air force exercises involving a US carrier strike group and American bombers with nuclear capability. The exercises led to fierce protests from the North, which describes these exercises as invasion rehearsals and constantly uses them as a pretext to advance its own weapons development.
South Korea has been patrolling the waters around the Northern Limit Line for decades after it was established by the UN Command at the end of the 1950-1953 Korean War. North Korea does not recognize the line, insisting on a border that penetrates deep into waters currently controlled by the South.
