North Korea, South Korea exchange warning shots near sea border

In what appears to be the latest sign of heightened tensions in the Korean peninsula, North Korea and South Korea exchanged warning shots on the sea border between the two. Both Pyongyang and Seoul traded accusations of breaching each other’s maritime border as tensions rise over North Korea’s increased weapons tests.

South Korea’s Joint Chiefs of Staff said Monday that it broadcasted warnings and fired warning shots to deter a North Korean merchant vessel that crossed the Northern Limit Line, which is the de facto sea border of the two Koreas.

The North Korean military, however, said it fired 10 rounds of artillery warning shots at its territorial waters, claiming that it detected “naval enemy movement” in the pretense of cracking down on an unidentified ship.

“We ordered initial countermeasures to strongly expel the enemy warship by firing 10 shells of multiple rocket launchers near the waters where the enemy movement occurred,” said the North Korean People’s Army in a statement reported by state media outlet KCNA.

The Joint Chiefs of Staff said Pyongyang’s artillery firings breached a 2018 inter-Korean agreement on reducing military animosities and undermined stability in the peninsula. While the JCS said the shells did not hit South Korean waters, it was boosting its military readiness.

The Northern Limit Line is a source of conflict between the two Koreas as it is where many inter-Korean naval clashes and violence took place in recent years, such as Pyongyang’s shelling of a South Korean island and the alleged torpedoing of a South Korean navy ship that killed 50 people back in 2010.

The latest exchange of warning shots, however, follows the recent series of weapons tests by Pyongyang. North Korea has fired missiles and artillery shots in recent weeks in protest of the military drills being carried out by South Korea and the United States along with Japan.

Last week, North Korea fired 350 rounds of artillery shells on its east and west coast as the drills were taking place. The JCS said 250 rounds were initially fired and launched an additional 100 shells, and while it did not hit South Korea’s territorial waters, the shells fell in the maritime buffer zones.

A spokesperson for the North Korean People’s Army said the shots were aimed as a warning to Seoul in response to South Korea’s artillery training that took place at the eastern border region.