North Korea warns South Korea not to cross maritime demarcation line

The Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK) on Saturday warned the South Korean military not to intrude into the DPRK waters north of the maritime demarcation line, otherwise they would face direct fire from the DPRK army.

In a notice sent to the South Korean authorities, the General Staff of the Korean People's Army (KPA) blamed the South Korean navy for sending several ships into the DPRK waters and then firing rocket gun shells at an unarmed DPRK ferryboat on Friday morning. The notice was carried by the official news agency KCNA.

"This reckless military provocation was evidently prompted by a premeditated sinister plot to bedevil the north-south relations and further aggravate the tension on the Korean Peninsula," the KCNA said.

The General Staff threatened that the DPRK army will open fire directly at any warships from South Korea without prior warning, if they intrude a slightest bit into the DPRK water territories north of the maritime demarcation line.

• On Friday, the Supreme Command of the KPA said in a report that three speedboats and a vessel from South Korea sailed 6.4 km across the maritime demarcation line into the DPRK waters four times and refused to return, and later fired several rocket gun shells against an unarmed ferryboat of the DPRK.

• The report said that "the situation in those waters is inching to the unpredictable extreme phase."

Earlier on the same day, South Korean media quoted the Joint Chiefs of Staff (JCS) as saying that a patrol boat and a fishing boat from the DPRK returned to the north after crossing the Northern Limit Line after the South Korean military fired warning shots.

The Northern Limit Line, or NLL, is a disputed maritime demarcation line in the Yellow Sea between the DPRK and South Korea.

As the DPRK has never officially recognized the NLL, navies of the two countries patrol the area regularly.
  [Xinhua -china.org.cn]
28/5/16
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