SEOUL – Patrol boats from North and South Korea exchanged fire early Tuesday near their maritime border in the Yellow Sea though none of the shots struck the vessels, the South Korean Defense Ministry reported.
A North Korean patrol boat penetrated half a nautical mile across the Northern Limit Line, or NLL, which divides the two Korea’s maritime zones near Yeonpyeong Island.
The South Korean vessel replied by issuing loudspeaker warnings and firing warning shots, a South Korean defense spokesperson told Efe.
The South Korean military has increased its alert level and are closely monitoring the movements of their northern neighbor for further “provocations,” the spokesperson added.
He said that they were going to evacuate the residents of Yeonpyeong, the island where two people died in 2010 in a bombing carried out by North Korea.
This year has witnessed several similar skirmishes between the two countries along the NLL, a boundary Pyongyang does not recognize.
The latest clash came after a period of hope for the resumption of dialogue following a surprise visit by high-ranking North Korean officials over the weekend after the closure of the Incheon 2014 Asian Games in South Korea.
North and South Korea are technically still at war as the armistice that ended the Korean War in 1953 was never followed by a definitive peace treaty.
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