S. Korea, DPRK trade warning fires near sea border
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E-mail Xinhua, October 7, 2014
Naval ships of the two Koreas traded warning fires near the western sea boundary after a patrol ship of the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK) violated the disputed maritime border, Seoul's Defense Ministry said Tuesday.
The exchange of shots came after high-ranking DPRK officials visited South Korea Saturday to attend the closing ceremony of the Incheon Asian Games. During the surprise visit, the DPRK officials agreed to hold another round of senior-level dialogue with South Korea, raising hopes for a reconciliatory mood on the Korean Peninsula.
One DPRK patrol ship sailed around 1 km south of the Northern Limit Line (NLL) at about 9:50 a.m., violating the disputed western sea border, a South Korean Defense Ministry official told Xinhua over phone.
A South Korean high-speed boat, or called PGM (guided missile patrol gun boat), issued warning communications to make the DPRK ship return to its territorial waters, but the DPRK ship stayed there until the South Korean ship issued warning shots with its machine gun.
The DPRK ship fired back at the South Korean ship, which in response fired machine guns against the DPRK ship. After exchanging the machine gun shots, the DPRK patrol ship returned to the north.
No warships of both sides fired aimed shots against each other. No casualties have been reported from the South Korean ship.
The South Korean military strengthened its monitoring of DPRK forces, fully preparing for possible provocations from the DPRK, the official said.
The trading of the naval gunfire came after three high-ranking DPRK officials made a surprise visit to Incheon, South Korea's western port city, for the closing ceremony of the 17th Asiad.
Hwang Pyong So, DPRK's second-in-command, led the delegation that includes Choe Ryong Hae and Kim Yang Gon, secretaries of the Central Committee of the Workers' Party of Korea.
During a meeting with their South Korean counterparts, the DPRK officials agreed to the second round of high-level talks between late October and early November whenever South Korea feels comfortable.
Seoul and Pyongyang had the vice ministerial-level dialogue in mid-February, the first high-level talks since South Korean President Park Geun-hye took office in February 2013. There have been no such talks since then amid the escalating tensions on the Korean Peninsula.
President Park took a cautious stance on expectations for a reconciliatory mood between the two Koreas, saying Monday that the inter-Korean relations repeated a "vicious cycle of cooling ties ever after inter-Korean contacts."
Even after the February dialogue, the DPRK test-fired ballistic missiles and threatened a "new form" of nuclear test in protest against joint military exercises between South Korea and the United States.
The Tuesday incident occurred in waters near the Yeonpyeong Island, a hotspot on the Korean Peninsula as maritime skirmishes had happened near the island. In November 2010, the DPRK fired artillery shells at the island, killing two civilians and two marines.
On Sept. 19, one fishery inspection boat of the DPRK violated the NLL and returned back to the north after South Korea's warning shots.
On May 22, DPRK naval ships fired several rounds of artillery shells toward waters near the NLL and two rounds fell near a South Korean patrol ship sailing in the waters.
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