Koreas exchange warning shots along sea border

SEOUL, South Korea — The rival Koreas exchanged informing shots on adjacent their disputed occidental oversea bound connected Monday, their militaries said, amid heightened tensions implicit North Korea’s caller barrage of weapons tests.

South Korea’s Joint Chiefs of Staff said successful a connection that its navy fired informing shots to repel a North Korean merchant vessel that it says violated the oversea bound aboriginal Monday.

North Korea’s subject said it’s responded by firing 10 rounds of artillery shells arsenic a informing to South Korea. It accused a South Korean navy vessel of intruding into North Korean waters.

The poorly marked oversea bound disconnected the Korean Peninsula’s westbound seashore is simply a root of long-running animosities betwixt the Koreas. It’s a country of respective bloody inter-Korean naval skirmishes and unit successful caller years, including the 2 attacks successful 2010 that killed 50 South Koreans.

In caller weeks, North Korea has carried retired a drawstring of weapons tests successful effect to what it calls provocative subject drills betwixt South Korea and the United States. Since Sept. 25, North Korea has fired 15 missiles and hundreds of artillery shells toward the sea.

Seoul and Washington routinely behaviour subject drills to support their readiness against imaginable North Korean aggressions. The allies accidental their drills are antiaircraft successful nature, but North Korea views them arsenic an penetration rehearsal.

South Korean subject is nether yearly tract exercises acceptable to extremity this Friday. This year’s drills impact an unspecified fig of U.S. troops.

Some experts accidental North Korea’s caller weapons tests are besides designed to bolster its arsenals to boost its leverage successful aboriginal negotiations with its rivals.