AP – South Korea’s military said it fired warning shots to repel a North Korean patrol vessel that temporarily crossed the countries’ disputed western sea boundary while chasing a fishing boat.
The North Korean patrol boat crossed the so-called Northern Limit Line at around 11am on Saturday while pursuing the boat in waters near South Korea’s Baekryeong island but immediately retreated after a South Korean naval vessel fired warning shots, South Korea’s Joint Chiefs of Staff said yesterday.
While there were no exchanges of fire between the North and South Korean vessels, the South Korean high-speed vessel collided with the fishing boat as it responded to the intrusion amid poor visibility, causing bruises and other minor injuries to some of the South Korean sailors.
The Joint Chiefs of Staff said the South Korean military is closely monitoring North Korean military activities while preparing for various possibilities of provocations.
South Korea’s navy has often fired warning shots to repel North Korean vessels crossing the countries’ poorly marked sea border, but there also have been some deadly clashes over the years.
Saturday’s intrusion came amid heightened tensions in the region as the pace of both North Korea’s weapons demonstrations and the United States (US)-South Korean military exercises aimed at countering the North Korean threat have intensified in a cycle of tit-for-tat.
The South Korean and US militaries will conduct another large-scale joint exercise starting today, which will involve over one hundred warplanes, including the F-35.
South Korea has patrolled waters around the Northern Limit Line for decades after it was drawn up by the United Nations (UN) command at the end of the 1950-53 Korean War.
North Korea does not recognise the line and insists upon a boundary that encroaches deeply into waters currently controlled by the South.
