“North Korea is so poorly understood by outsiders, even by analysts in the South, that its threats make the already jittery Korean Peninsula even tenser”. It will now fire without warning at South Korean warships if they intrude into the North’s waters by “even 0.001 millimeters”.
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The two vessels from the North retreated about eight minutes after the South Korean navy fired five 40 mm artillery shots at around 7:30 a.m. local time, South Korean officials told Reuters.
The de-facto maritime boundary between the two Koreas – the Northern Limit Line – is not recognised by Pyongyang, which argues it was unilaterally drawn by US-led United Nations forces after the 1950-53 Korean War. Several bloody skirmishes have ensued in the area since 1999.
Such restaurants are known to be facing financial difficulty after the U.N. Security Council slapped tougher sanctions on Pyongyang for its January nuclear test and long-range rocket launch in February.
In recent weeks, Pyongyang has been urging Seoul to accept supreme leader Kim Jong-Un’s proposal for military talks aimed at easing cross-border tensions which has been flatly rejected by the South.
South Korea on Friday welcomed the European Union’s adoption of new sanctions punishing North Korea for its nuclear and missile tests.
Pyongyang is also banned from selling any oil-related or luxury goods to the European Union, while EU nations can not invest in the country’s mining, refining and chemical industries.
“The EU chose to further expand its restrictive measures targeting the DPRK’s nuclear, weapons of mass destruction and ballistic missile programmes”, according to a statement from the European Council, which groups EU member states.
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“Considering that the actions of the DPRK constitute a grave threat to worldwide peace and security in the region and beyond, the EU chose to further expand its restrictive measures targeting the DPRK’s nuclear, weapons of mass destruction and ballistic missile programmes”, the EU Council said.
