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S. Korea fires at boat from North
SEOUL (CNN) -- South Korea has fired warning shots to turn back a North Korean fishing boat that strayed over a disputed border in the Yellow Sea. Seoul says this is the 13th violation across their de facto western sea border since last Thursday, the site of deadly naval gun battles last June and in 1999. The so-called Northern Limit Line was drawn up after the 1953 truce in the Korean war, but the North has disputed it since 1999, and demanded it be moved south. Hours before the Tuesday incident, Pyongyang issued a statement accusing Seoul of sending warships into its territorial waters on a daily basis, a claim it has denied. North Korea, through its official KCNA news agency, said the South was fabricating these incidents as part of a plan to start a naval battle with the North. A South Korean Navy vessel fired eight warning shots from a machine gun to force the North Korean fishing boats from waters claimed by the South, the nation's defense ministry said. A South Korean Defense Ministry spokesman said the warning shots fired Tuesday were from a K-6 machine gun at a range of 2,700 meters. The fishing boat retreated after five minutes, and there were no reports of injuries. Tensions on the Korean peninsula rose after Washington reported in October that Pyongyang said it was following a secretive nuclear weapons program, once frozen under a 1994 pact.
North Korea's decision to reactivate its nuclear program, pull out of a non-proliferation treaty and kick out inspectors has sparked growing international concern. Pyongyang says these are self-defense measures forced on it by the "hostile" policy of the United States that branded the North part of an "axis of evil." For its part Washington is piling pressure on Pyongygang to abandon its nuclear program, and urging allies in the region, among them South Korea and Japan, to take tougher measures against the isolationist state. On Monday, Group of Eight world leaders meeting in France accused North Korea of undermining non-proliferation agreements. Although the war of words shows little sign of abating, diplomatic efforts continue to strive for a peaceful end to the crisis.
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