South Korean military recently loosened its operation rules in coping with the crossing of the controversial inter-Korean western sea border by ships of Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK), South Korean Yonhap News Agency reported Thursday.

The revised rules, prepared by the office of the South Korean Joint Chiefs of Staff, call on South Korean Navy to refrain from firing warning shots at DPRK military boats, commercial and fishing vessels if they are deemed to have mistakenly cross the Northern Limit Line (NLL) in the Yellow Sea.

"The new NLL operation regulations are aimed at preventing accidental armed clashes on the high-tension western sea border," an unnamed South Korean military officer was quoted by Yonhap as saying.

"Warning gunshots are now restrained in case of unintentional NLL intrusions by DPRK boats during storms and other unavoidable circumstances," the officer said.

In this June, South Korea and the DPRK agreed to have their navies share a radio frequency and use the same flag signaling system to avoid accidental clashes on the poorly marked maritime border. South Korea views the NLL as the de facto inter-Korean seaborder, however, the DPRK does not accept the conception.

Navies of the two countries once had two skirmishes in 1999 and2002 around the NLL that resulted in heavy casualties on both sides.

Shortly after the June 2002 clash, which killed six South Korean sailors and wounded 18, the South Korean military toughenedits NLL operation rules, reducing its countermove steps from five to three.

Source: Xinhua