SEOUL, South Korea — South Korea’s army says it fired warning pictures to repel a North Korean patrol vessel that quickly crossed the international locations’ disputed western sea boundary whereas chasing a Chinese fishing boat.
The North Korean patrol boat crossed the so-called Northern Limit Line at round 11 a.m. Saturday whereas pursuing the Chinese boat in waters close to South Korea’s Baekryeong island however instantly retreated after a South Korean naval vessel fired warning pictures, South Korea’s Joint Chiefs of Staff stated Sunday.
While there have been no exchanges of fireplace between the North and South Korean vessels, the South Korean high-speed vessel collided with the Chinese boat because it responded to the intrusion amid poor visibility, inflicting bruises and different minor accidents to a number of the South Korean sailors.
The Joint Chiefs of Staff stated the South Korean army is intently monitoring North Korean army actions whereas getting ready for varied prospects of provocations.
South Korea’s navy has usually fired warning pictures to repel North Korean vessels crossing the international locations’ poorly marked sea border, however there even have been some lethal clashes over time. South Korea blamed North Korea for an assault on a South Korean warship that killed 46 sailors in 2010, however the North has denied duty.
Saturday’s intrusion got here amid heightened tensions within the area because the tempo of each North Korea’s weapons demonstrations and the U.S.-South Korean joint army workouts geared toward countering the North Korean menace have intensified in a cycle of tit-for-tat.
The South Korean and U.S. militaries will conduct one other large-scale joint train from subsequent week involving some 110 warplanes, together with superior F-35 fighter jets. Seoul’s Defense Ministry stated the aerial drills, which will likely be start Monday and proceed by April 28, are geared toward sharpening mixed operational talents and demonstrating the allies’ joint protection posture within the face of North Korean threats.
North Korea final week staged one among its most provocative army shows in years by test-launching what it described as a solid-fuel intercontinental ballistic missile, which if perfected might doubtlessly give the North a extra highly effective and harder-to-detect weapon focusing on the mainland United States.
South Korean officers additionally say North Korea has not been responding to South Korean calls on a set of cross-border inter-Korean hotlines for greater than per week, which raises considerations about potential kinetic provocations as communications on these channels are supposed to stop unintentional clashes alongside the rivals’ sea borders.
Source: www.bostonherald.com”