South and North Korean patrol boats briefly exchanged fire on Tuesday after a North Korean naval vessel violated the western maritime border, the Joint Chiefs of Staff (JCS) said.
The clash came three days after a high-powered North Korean delegation made a rare visit to South Korea and agreed to hold another round of high-level dialogue in the near future, raising hopes for a thaw in inter-Korean relations.
The exchange of fire took place at around 9:50 a.m. in waters near Yeonpyeong Island in the Yellow Sea, after a North Korean patrol boat crossed the Northern Limit Line (NLL) into the South’s waters, the JCS said in a statement.
“To force the vessel to retreat, our side issued warning messages and fired a warning shot. But the North Korean vessel fired back rather than backing down, which caused us to fire again.
Then the ship made a retreat,” it said, adding that the exchange of gunfire lasted some 10 minutes.
The South Korean patrol boat did not sustain any damage, nor did the North Korean vessel appear to have been hit, a JCS officer said, noting that neither side had aimed their shots.
“We have maintained full readiness while closely watching the North Korean military’s movements,” the JCS said. “No other extraordinary movements were detected at the border region when the North’s vessels intruded onto our side.”
Drawn by the U.S.-led United Nations Command at the end of the 1950-53 Korean War, the NLL acts as the de facto sea border between the two Koreas. Pyongyang does not recognize the border, and the area has been the site of several bloody clashes between the two sides.
On Saturday, a North Korean delegation led by Hwang Pyong-so, believed to be the North’s No. 2 man, made a surprise visit to South Korea to attend the closing ceremony of the 2014 Asian Games.
Before attending the ceremony on Saturday night, the delegation held rare high-level talks with top-ranking South Korean security officials and agreed to hold another round of high-level dialogue in the near future. It was the highest-level meeting between South and North Korea in five years.
Hwang, vice chairman of the communist country’s all-powerful National Defense Commission, was accompanied by Choe Ryong-hae, a Workers’ Party of Korea secretary, and Kim Yang-gon, who is in charge of Pyongyang’s relations with Seoul. (Yonhap)
