Three navy patrol boats of the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK) briefly crossed the western sea border with South Korea on Monday, said the office of South Korean Joint Chiefs of Staff (JCS).

Two DPRK vessels crossed the Northern Limit Line (NLL), the controversial inter-Korean western sea border, and remained in South Korean waters from 10:54 a.m.(0154 GMT) to 11:40 a.m.(0240 GMT) before returning to their own side following warning shots fired by the South Korean Navy, according to a news release of the JCS.

One of the two ships again intruded into South Korean waters shortly after noon but returned to the DPRK side seven minutes later after the South Korean Navy fired four warning shots, the release said.

In a separate case, a DPRK navy boat crossed the NLL and sailed about a mile southward around 11 a.m. (0200 GMT), but it returned to the DPRK's waters some 24 minutes later after receiving warning radio messages from the South Korean Navy, the release added.

Pyongyang has not accepted the NLL which was fixed unilaterally by the US-led United Nations Command after the Korean War (1950-1953), but Seoul holds the NLL as the de-facto western inter-Korean border.

In 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.

The area was the scene of two bloody naval skirmishes in 1999 and 2002, which resulted in heavy casualties on both sides. Enditem

Source: Xinhua