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A government official said Friday that North and South Korean warships engaged in a tense hour-long face-off in the West Sea Friday morning after Northern patrol boats accused their Southern counterparts of violating the so-called West Sea Military Demarcation Line in the seas bordering Yeonpyeong Island and threatened to fire warning shots.
The warships traded a total of seven warning broadcasts during the standoff, but no shots were fired. After the 1999 naval exchange off Yeonpyeong Island, North Korea denied the validity of the Northern Limit Line (NLL) and unilaterally established a "West Sea Military Demarcation Line," claiming that the seas north of that line were North Korean territorial waters.
South Korean naval ships were conducting routine patrols 10 miles south of the NLL, and North Korean warships were said to have come within two miles of this mapped barrier.
The Northern vessels did not violate the NLL, but they sent threatening warnings to the other side, while the South responded twice that further acts of hostility would be strongly reciprocated.
(Jang Il-hyeon, ihjang@chosun.com )
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