South Korea fired warning shots at a North Korean ship that crossed its sea border on Saturday, the South Korean military said a day after the incident, which occurred amid recent tensions over North Korea’s missile tests.
The Joint Chiefs of Staff of the South (JCS) said they fired warning shots and issued warnings to expel a North Korean patrol boat that breached the Northern Limit Line (NLL), the de facto sea border, around 11:00 a.m. Saturday.
“Our military maintains a determined battle stance while monitoring enemy movements, preparing for potential NLL violation provocations by North Korean patrol boats,” the JCS said in a Sunday statement.
The JCS added that in the operation, a South Korean patrol vessel got here into “minor contact” with a close-by Chinese fishing vessel because of poor visibility, which caused no issues of safety but minor injuries to the South Korean crew.
The North’s invasion got here as tensions rose over the North’s intensified military activities in recent weeks, including Friday’s test a latest solid-propellant intercontinental ballistic missile which experts say would make it easier to launch a rocket without warning.
Since the Nineteen Nineties, Pyongyang has disputed the NLL – drawn up at the end of the 1950-53 Korean War – claiming it should lie far to the south.
In October last 12 months, each Koreas fired warning shots in western waters, accusing one another of violating the sea boundary in an area where confrontations often took place.
Pyongyang has threatened military motion as South Korea and US forces perform theirs annual spring exercises since March, calling it an attempt at nuclear war.
North Korean leader Kim Jong Un this week ordered a strengthening of war deterrence in “more practical and offensive. to counter what the isolated country called acts of aggression by the United States and South Korea.
Seoul and Washington say their drills are defensive in nature and intended to discourage the North.