S. Korea fires warning shots at N. Korean patrol boat

South Korea has fired machine gun rounds at a North Korean patrol boat that crossed into its waters in the Yellow Sea, the South's military said Sunday, threatening the conciliatory mood created by the second round of family reunions taking place in the North.

The South Korean Navy fired five warning shots at the vessel around 3:30 p.m. Saturday after it crossed the de-facto western maritime border between the two Koreas known as the Northern Limit Line by hundreds of meters.

The boat was supposedly cracking down on dozens of illegal Chinese fishing boats in waters near South Korea's Yeonpyeong Island, the site of a deadly bombardment by the North in 2010, the military said.

The boat retreated about 18 minutes after the shots were fired, with no injuries being reported.

"There was no violent clash during the warning process," a South Korean military official said, asking not to be named.

The North, however, condemned the firing as a "military provocation."

"South Korean belligerents carried out a military provocation against our patrol boat, which was carrying out its duties in our waters," a spokesman for the North's Committee for the Peaceful Reunification of Korea told Pyongyang's state media.

The incident took place as the second round of reunions of families separated by the 1950-53 Korean War is being held in North Korea. Some 90 families have been temporarily reunited since Saturday for a three-day event. The first round involved another 90 families and ended Thursday.

This isn't the first time a North Korean boat has crossed the NLL, with the communist country claiming a line further down south as the maritime border.

The most recent transgression took place on Aug. 31, only six days after a landmark deal was reached between the Koreas to diffuse tension. Two more crossings took place earlier in June, with South Korea firing warning shots in all of the incidents. The family reunions that started last week are part of the deal. (Yonhap)

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