North Korea and South Korea fire warning shots along sea border

North Korea and South Korea have fired warning shots along their disputed maritime border. This was announced by the armed forces of both countries on Monday. The General Staff in Seoul said the Navy fired warning shots to drive away a North Korean merchant ship that breached the maritime border early in the morning (local time). North Korea's People's Army said its coastal defense units then fired 10 shells as a warning toward waters "where enemy naval movements had been detected."

Pyongyang accused Seoul of a South Korean naval ship entering North Korean waters. The South Korean General Staff in turn accused North Korea of ​​violating a 2018 inter-Korean agreement to reduce military tensions and undermining stability on the Korean peninsula with the artillery fire. The North Korean projectiles did not fall in South Korean waters. South Korea has nevertheless increased its military combat readiness in response.

In a statement on Monday, the General Staff of the North Korean People's Army also accused South Korea of ​​provoking artillery tests and propaganda loudspeaker announcements near the land border. South Korea has already confirmed that it carried out weapons tests as part of regular military exercises last week. Seoul initially did not comment on the allegation about the announcements.

This year, North Korea has launched dozens of rockets and cruise missiles, 15 such tests since September 25 alone, and the country has also launched hundreds of shells towards the sea. Recently, North Korea also practiced the use of tactical nuclear weapons. It wants the maneuvers to be understood as a reaction to "dangerous" South Korean-American naval exercises in recent weeks.

Violent incidents have repeatedly occurred along the sea border on the west coast of the Korean Peninsula. The North shelled a South Korean island around 2010, the year before a suspected North Korean torpedo attack on a South Korean naval ship killed 50 people.