North Korea vows response to South 'incursions'

Iran Press TV

Fri May 8, 2015 9:4AM

North Korea has warned its southern neighbor that it would give a strong response to any incursion into its territorial waters, days after Seoul's naval forces reportedly violated a disputed Yellow Sea border.

According to a statement carried by the official Korean Central News Agency (KCNA), the Korean People's Army (KPA) said on Friday that Pyongyang military forces would henceforth 'make a sighting strike without any prior warning' on any South Korean naval vessels deemed to have entered its waters.

The KPA recently accused 17 South Korean high-speed patrol boats of crossing into the North's territorial waters 'under the pretext' of intercepting Chinese fishing boats.

Meanwhile, in a message to the KPA command, South Korean Defense Ministry spokesman Kim Nin-Seok flatly denied the charges of incursions by Seoul vessels and accused the North of seeking to stir up tensions.

In the past few months, the land and sea borders between the two countries have seen a number of skirmishes involving exchanges of fire, but with no reported casualties.

In October 2014, the two Koreas agreed to resume a high-level dialogue. However, both sides have since then traded allegations of insincerity.

The Korean Peninsula has been locked in a cycle of military rhetoric since the Korean War, which lasted from 1950 to 1953. No peace deal has been signed since then, meaning that Pyongyang and Seoul remain technically at war.

North Korea also accuses US President Barack Obama of plotting with regional allies to topple the government in Pyongyang. North Korea says it will not relinquish its nuclear deterrence unless the United States ends its hostile policy toward Pyongyang and dissolves the US-led UN command in South Korea.

JR/NN/HMV