The South Korean navy fired warning shots Tuesday at a Chinese patrol boat that crossed the disputed maritime border between South and North Korea, military officials in Seoul said.
A statement from the Joint Chiefs of Staff said the action was taken after the initially unidentified vessel encroached on South Korean territorial waters.
“It retreated as the warning shots were being fired,” the statement said.
The Defence Ministry said the vessel was initially assumed to be North Korean. Naval patrol boats from the North regularly test the boundaries of the Yellow Sea border which has been a military flashpoint between the two Koreas for decades.
“But it actually turned out to be a Chinese patrol boat cracking down on illegal Chinese fishing vessels,” a ministry official told AFP.
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Around 2,200 Chinese vessels have been stopped and fined by South Korea for illegal fishing in the past four years, and the number of arrested fishermen jumped from two in 2010 to 66 in 2013.
Full article: S. Korean navy fires warning shots at Chinese patrol boat (Spacewar)
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