Pyongyang threatens to fire at Seoul's warships crossing maritime border

North Korea on Saturday warned it will fire at any South Korean warship that crosses the disputed western maritime border.

"From now on, we will open direct fire on any warship of the South Korean forces without warning, if it intrudes into the extension of the Military Demarcation Line of our side even 0.001 mm in the hotspot of the West Sea," the North Korean army said in a statement released by state-run news agency KCNA.

The warning comes a day after the South Korean navy fired five warning shots when two North Korean boats - a fishing boat and a patrol boat - crossed the disputed western sea boundary that separates the territorial waters of the two countries in the Yellow Sea.

The two boats immediately retreated to the northern part of the waters after the shots.

In its statement, the North Korean regime rebuked its neighbour for its "reckless military provocation", which it said stemmed from "a premeditated sinister plot to bedevil the North-South relations and further aggravate the tension on the Korean Peninsula".

--IANS

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