- Sputnik International
Asia
Find top stories and features from Asia and the Pacific region. Keep updated on major political stories and analyses from Asia and the Pacific. All you want to know about China, Japan, North and South Korea, India and Pakistan, Southeast Asia and Oceania.

Pyongyang Warns of 'Targeted Strikes' Against South Korea's Navy

© REUTERS / KCNANorth Korean leader Kim Jong Un greets Korean People's Army pilots during a visit to the summit of Mt Paektu April 18, 2015
North Korean leader Kim Jong Un greets Korean People's Army pilots during a visit to the summit of Mt Paektu April 18, 2015 - Sputnik International
Subscribe
North Korea threatened to launch "unannounced targeted strikes" on South Korean naval vessels that allegedly violated the two Koreas' disputed Yellow Sea border.

North Korean leader Kim Jong Un - Sputnik International
IAEA ‘Seriously Concerned’ About North Korea’s Nuclear Program
Pyongyang signaled its readiness to stage "unannounced targeted strikes" at South Korea's navy, which North Korea said allegedly violated its territorial waters off the Korean Peninsula's west coast, sources said.

"From this time on, there will be unannounced targeted strikes against puppet navy vessels that violate our military's maritime border in the west coast hotspot waters," the North Korean news agency KCNA quoted the country's military command statement as saying on Friday.

In case of any armed response, the Korean People's Army (KPA) pledged to "successively deal strong second, third and more retaliatory strikes," according to the statement.

The KPA claimed that South Korean naval speedboats made a "military provocation" by crossing into the North's territorial waters in the Yellow Sea in the first week of May "under the pretext" of intercepting Chinese fishing boats.

The KPA said North Korea's military would "make a sighting strike without any prior warning" on any South Korean naval ship thought to have entered its territorial waters.

South Korea's Office of the Joint Chiefs of Staff  for its part, described Pyongyang's as "insane", saying that its naval vessels have not crossed the maritime border since the end of the 1950-1953 Korean War.

Fertilizers - Sputnik International
Asia
South Korea Eases 5-Year Ban on Aid to North, Allowing Fertilizer Shipment
North Korea rejects as illegal the so-called Northern Limit Line (NLL), which was drawn after the Korean War and is currently recognized by South Korea. Pyongyang instead recognizes the Military Demilitarization Line, located south of the NLL.

The western maritime border has been the scene of deadly naval clashes between the two Koreas in the past.

In 2010, at least 46 South Korean sailors were killed after a torpedo hit their navy ship near the two's disputed maritime border. Seoul points the finger at North Korea, which vehemently denies the accusations. 

Newsfeed
0
To participate in the discussion
log in or register
loader
Chats
Заголовок открываемого материала