N. KOREA FIRES ARTILLERY SHELLS

[Anchor Lead]

South Korea's military says a North Korean merchant ship crossed the Northern Limit Line and returned to the north after the South Korean Navy fired warning shots. North Korea, however, claims they fired artillery rounds because a South Korean vessel had crossed the NLL.

[Pkg]

The Joint Chiefs of Staff announced that a North Korean merchant ship had crossed the Northern Limit Line at 3:42 Monday morning. The Mupoho violated the NLL some 27 kilometers northwest of Baengnyeongdo Island. A military source said the North Korean vessel sailed as far as 3.3 kilometers south of the NLL and stayed for roughly 40 minutes before retreating after the South sent some 20 warning messages and fired 20 warning shots. The JCS said it was a normal response for a ship that crosses the NLL. But instead the North Korean military placed the blame on the South. North Korea's military claimed that a convoy vessel belonging to the ROK Navy's Second Fleet crossed 2.5 to 5 kilometers north of the maritime Military Demarcation Line, about 20 kilometers northwest of Baengnyeongdo Island on the pretext of driving back an unidentified ship. Pyongyang claimed a naval dispute occurred where the South Korean Navy fired warning shots. Subsequently, the North Korean command instructed its coastal defense units along the western front line to strengthen their surveillance and readiness and fired ten artillery shells toward the area to take advance measures to drive away the enemy vessel. North Korea explained its military fired 10 warning rounds at a 270-degree azimuth angle from Ryongyeon-gun County area at 5:15 a.m. The North's military added that it is sending a stern warning again to the enemies that have launched rocket artillery and loud speaker provocations on the ground recently and are now going ahead with maritime provocations. The JCS said North Korea had fired ten rocket rounds to the northern buffer zone in the West Sea, but none of them had fallen in South Korean waters. The JCS stressed that North Korea clearly violated the 2018 inter-Korean military agreement by firing shells at the South Korean Navy, which was following protocol against a North Korean vessel violating the NLL.