N.K.’s patrol boat violates NLL, exchanges fire with S.K. Navy

A patrol boat of the North Korean military violated the Northern Limit Line near Yeonpyeong Island in the Yellow Sea, before retreating in the face of warning shots from the South Korean military on Tuesday. Exchange of warship gun and machine gun fires has occurred just three days after three top North Korean officials including Hwang Pyong So, head of the general politburo of the North Korean People’s Army, visited South Korea. A naval skirmish between the two Koreas has happened for the first time in five years since the Naval Battle of Daecheong in 2009.

According to the South Korean military authority, a North Korean patrol boat violated 0.5 miles (about 900 meters) into south of the NLL, the de factor inter-Korean sea border, near Yeonpyeong around 9:50 a.m. on the day. The South Korean Navy’s speed boat sent warning messages and fired warning shots to demand the speed boat to retreat, but the North’s speed boat fired back dozens of shots with machine guns. South Korean battleships also responded with more than 90 shots of 76-mm naval cannons and 40-mm machine guns. “The North Korean patrol boat returned to north of the NLL around 10 a.m.,” a South Korean military source said. “We suffered no damage, and the North Korean patrol boat was not shot by our artillery fire either.”

Asked by lawmakers whether the incident was warning shots or battle at an audit of the government by the parliamentary defense committee on the day, Defense Minister Han Min-koo said, “We should consider it a battle.”