South Korea, Seoul: A news program reporting on military exercises in North Korea with an archive image is shown on a monitor at the Seoul train station.
Image: dpa
Both states accused each other that enemy ships had entered their waters. A series of North Korean missile tests has fueled sentiment in the region in recent weeks.
An the disputed maritime border between North Korea and South Korea, both sides have fired warning shots. A North Korean merchant ship crossed the sea border with South Korea early Monday morning, prompting the South Korean army to fire the warning shots, the Yonhap news agency quoted the South Korean armed forces’ general staff as saying. The ship then turned around to head north.
For its part, the North Korean army said a South Korean army ship had “entered” North Korean territory over a distance of 2.5 to 5 kilometers across the border. The North Korean army therefore fired ten artillery shells from the west coast as a warning.
Nuclear Test Warning
The sea border was drawn by a US-led UN force at the end of the Korean War in 1953. Pyongyang has never recognized this border. At the sea border, there have been repeated incidents between the two Korean states over the years.
Tensions in the region have increased significantly in recent weeks, partly because of a series of North Korean missile tests. North Korea’s army also fired hundreds of artillery shells and launched fighter planes in the border area with South Korea.
South Korea and the US have been warning for months that Pyongyang could prepare a nuclear weapons test. It would be the first such test since 2017.
