[Courtesy of Republic of Korea Armed Forces]
A South Korea naval ship fired warning shots Monday as a North Korea patrol boat intruded across the disputed Yellow Sea border amid high tension caused by a long-range rocket launch.
The North Korean boat sailed across the sea border at 6:55 am (2155 GMT) and retreated after South Korea's navy fired five rounds of warnig shots, the South's defense ministry said.
The intrusion came hours after the United Nations Security Council unanimously condemned North Korea's rocket launch as a violation of UN resolutions banning ballistic missile tests and promised "significant" new sanctions.
The Security Council said that even though North Korea characterized the rocket test as a satellite launch, it was clearly an effort to develop a ballistic missile.
The rocket launch sent inter-Korean tensions soaring again, and South Korean troops have been put on high alert to guard against any North Korean provocations along the heavily militarized border.
The two Koreas recognize different boundaries dividing their territorial waters in the Yellow Sea.
The North argues that the demarcation recognized by the South -- the Northern Limit Line (NLL) -- is invalid because it was unilaterally drawn by US-led UN forces after the 1950-53 Korean War.
The North recognizes what it calls the Military Demilitarization Line.
Because the Korean conflict ended with a ceasefire rather than a treaty, the two Koreas remain technically at war.
The maritime border has always been a flash point and was the scene of brief but bloody naval clashes in 1999, 2002 and 2009.
In November 2010, North Korea shelled a front-line island, killing four South Koreans and briefly triggering concerns of a full-scale conflict.
아주경제 임장원 기자 = cwlim34@ajunews.com
reporter
Park Sae-jin
swatchsjp@ajunews.com
