The South Korean Navy on Friday fired warning shots at the Communist North's fishing boats operating south of the country's western sea border, but there was no clash with the its Navy, military officials said.
A fleet of six North Korean boats "violated" the sea border. Two South Korean patrol vessels were sent to the area before airing radio warnings twice and then firing off dozens of warning shots, the Yonhap news agency reported quoting officials.
All the North Korean boats returned to north of the maritime boundary, known as the Northern Limit Line, and its patrol ships, which were on the north side of the NLL, did not fire back, the reports added.
It was the first time that the South Korean military fired off warning shots against the North's vessels since November 2010, shortly before the North shelled the front-line Yeonpyeong Island in an unprovoked attack.
The latest move comes after the Joint Chiefs of Staff earlier in the day said it has raised the alert status near the western sea border after detecting a growing number of North Korean vessels fishing south of the NLL, the de facto maritime boundary between the two Koreas.
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