Two Koreas exchange warning shots near maritime border amid tensions
SEOUL – North Korea fired 10 artillery shells off its west coast on Monday, the North’s official KCNA said, in response to South Korea’s warning shots fired at a North Korean boat that crossed the two Koreas’ maritime border.
North Korea fired 10 shells of multiple rocket launchers at around 5:15 a.m. (-1day 2015 GMT) after the South Korean military fired warning shots at around 3:50 a.m. citing patrol activities, a spokesman for the General Staff of the North’s Korean People’s Army said.
The South’s Joint Chiefs of Staff said it sent back a North Korean merchant vessel that crossed the Northern Limit Line (NLL), the de facto sea boundary between the two Koreas.
“The General Staff of the Korean People’s Army … ordered to fire 10 shots from multiple rocket launchers to sternly send back the enemy’s vessel,” the North Korean spokesman said in a statement carried by the KCNA.