Pyongyang and Seoul accuse each other of breaching the disputed maritime boundary with one of their ships.
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This is a new episode in a tense context for a few weeks between Pyongyang and Seoul. North Korea and South Korea exchanged warning shots Monday morning, October 24, accusing each other of breaching the disputed maritime border with one of their ships.
First, a North Korean merchant boat breached the “Northern Limit Line” near Baengnyeong Island at 3:42 a.m. (local time), then reportedly retreated north after warning shots from the South Korean Navy, the Joint Chiefs of Staff said. “The North’s continued provocations and reckless claims undermine the peace and stability of the Korean Peninsula and the international community”estimated the staffurging Pyongyang to “stop immediately”.
For its part, the North Korean army claimed that a South Korean military vessel violated the de facto border a few minutes later, at 5:15 a.m., and the North Korean army responded by firing ten shots. warning from its west coast. Un spokesperson for the North Korean army general staff denounced “maritime provocations which come on top of artillery fire and the broadcasting of cross-border messages by loudspeakers”.
The maritime “buffer zone” was established in a 2018 agreement intended to prevent tensions between the two Koreas. But they have intensified in recent weeks. Pyongyang has carried out several missile launches and artillery barrages in waters off its east and west coasts. North Korea has also recently ramped up weapons tests described as simulated “tactical nuclear” strikes.