The Navy said that it fired 10 rounds in warning at a Chinese patrol boat that was conducting a crackdown on some Chinese fishermen illegal fishing near a border island in the waters off South Korea‘s west coast. The Chinese patrol boat trespassed across the maritime border, widely known as the Northern Limit Line, in the course of its crackdown.

“The vessel retreated northward as we fired off warning shots at it after repeatedly issuing warning messages,” it said.

It said that the ship was first presumed to come from North Korea, but it was later confirmed as a Chinese patrol boat.

The North’s patrol boats have frequently intruded past the NLL, as it has long demanded that the line be moved farther south.

Pyongyang does not acknowledge the NLL, which was drawn unilaterally by the U.S.-led United Nations Command when the 1950-53 Korean War entered into a ceasefire. The two Koreas fought bloody battles in 1999, 2002 and 2009 near the border.

Chinese fishing boats often cross into South Korean waters in the Yellow Sea in search of abundant fish stocks, regularly leading to violence by Chinese crews during raids by the South Korean Coast Guard.

“The Navy has beefed up its surveillance near the NLL,” a Coast Guard representative said. (Yonhap)