North, South Koreas exchange warning shots as tensions simmer
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Loading... - Kimberly Morris
- 24 Oct 2022
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Tensions simmered in the Korean peninsula Monday as the North and the South exchanged warning shots off the west coast, accusing each other of breaching their maritime borders.
The South's Joint Chiefs of Staff (JCS) said it broadcast warnings and fired warning shots to see off a North Korean merchant vessel that crossed the Northern Limit Line (NLL), the de facto sea boundary, at around 3:40 a.m. (6:40 p.m. GMT Sunday).
The North's military said it fired 10 rocket artillery rounds after a South Korean navy ship violated the sea border and fired warning shots "on the pretext of tracking down an unidentified ship," according to state media.
"We ordered initial countermeasures to strongly expel the enemy warship," a spokesperson for the General Staff of the North's Korean People's Army said, according to the official KCNA news agency.
The JCS called the North's move a violation of a 2018 bilateral military pact banning "hostile acts" in the border areas, and urged it to cease "consistent provocations and accusations."
Since the 1990s, Pyongyang has been disputing the NLL, drawn up at the end of the 1950-53 Korean War, claiming it should lie far to the south.
An official in South Korea's military said it had conducted a "normal operation" regarding the border intrusion and rejects the North's claim over the NLL. Read More…
