South and North Korea exchanged barbs on Friday over Pyongyang’s claims of South Korean ships’ violation of the western sea border.
In what it called “an emergency special warning,” the communist country’s Command in Southwestern Sector of Front claimed that South Korean Navy speedboats made a “military provocation” by deeply intruding into the North’s territorial waters in the Yellow Sea two or three times a day between May 1 and 7.
“From this moment, it will make a sighting strike without any prior warning at any warship of the South Korean Navy intruding into the extension of demarcation line in the hotspot (of the sea),” said the statement carried by the Korean Central News Agency.
North Korea also threatened to successively deal stronger blows to the South’s ships if South Korea makes counterattacks on the North, according to the KCNA.
Pyongyang does not acknowledge the border, known as the Northern Limit Line, which was drawn unilaterally by the U.S.-led United Nations Command when the 1950-53 Korean War ended in a ceasefire. The North has long demanded that the line be drawn farther south.
Flatly dismissing the North’s claims, South Korea expressed “serious regrets” over the warning against “our ships’ normal operations.”
“It is not our side but your side that brings up tension along the NLL. Your threatening words and deeds by distorting facts are stoking unnecessary military tension between the two Koreas,” Defense Ministry spokesman Kim Min-seok said in a message to the North Korean command.
“If you act provocatively while ignoring our warnings, we will sternly and strongly respond to them to the degree where you will bitterly repent,” Kim said, calling for Pyongyang’s full respect for the maritime border.
The latest incident came amid an increasing number of North Korean and Chinese fishing boats operating near the border.
Every year, North Korea gets paid from the Chinese side in exchange for offering China the right to fish in its waters, according to officials here. Pyongyang has included part of the South Korean territorial waters near the western sea border when selling the rights to China, prompting the Seoul military to beef up surveillance, they said.
“We’ve never violated the NLL, while the North has often done so,” said a defense ministry official, requesting anonymity. In the latest case, a North Korean patrol boat crossed the border into the South due to engine failure.
The South Korean military “is analyzing what prompted the North to make such absurd remarks, while maintaining the strong posture against any possible scenarios,” although there is no indication yet of unusual military movement from the North, he added. (Yonhap)
