SEOUL, Oct. 25 (UPI) — South Korea’s navy fired warning shots at a North Korean patrol boat as it strayed across the disputed maritime border, South Korea’s state news agency said.
South Korea fired machine gun rounds at the boat that crossed into its waters in the Yellow Sea, Yonhap News Agency reported. The boat retreated 18 minutes after the shots were fired. No injuries were reported.
“There was no violent clash during the warning process,” an unnamed South Korean military official told Yonhap.
The North’s state-run Korean Central News Agency reported the boat was conducting a routine operation. The North called the incident a “serious provocation.”
“South Korean belligerents carried out a military provocation against our patrol boat, which was carrying out its duties in our waters,” a spokesman for the North’s Committee for the Peaceful Reunification of Korea told Pyongyang’s state media.
North Korea rejects the maritime border, the Northern Limit Line, drawn at the end of the Korean War.
The incident happened as the two countries were holding the second of two reunions for families separated by the war.
