South Korea yesterday sent military vessels to repel Chinese fishing boats that were illegally harvesting prized blue crabs near the disputed sea boundary between North Korea and South Korea before the fishermen retreated, South Korean officials said.
Four naval and marine boats entered neutral waters around South Korea’s Ganghwa Island to chase away about 10 Chinese boats, which by afternoon had moved into North Korea-controlled waters, said a South Korean Ministry of National Defense official, who did not want to be named, citing office rules.
The operation was approved by the UN Command that governs the zone where fishing activity is prohibited.
Photo: AP
Depending on weather and water conditions, the operation is to resume today and continue until the Chinese boats withdraw further, the official said. The South Korean military and maritime police personnel who carried out the mission were accompanied by translators and two monitors from UN Command.
“United Nations Command takes its responsibility to maintain the armistice very seriously. We had a responsibility to act and we are doing that,” General Vincent Brooks, the US commander of the UN Command, said in a statement on the decision to authorize the operation.
The governments of China and North Korea were notified before the operation started and the Chinese boats were warned in English and Chinese, said the official, who did not provide further details about the operation.
Days earlier, South Korean fishermen towed away two Chinese fishing boats catching crabs south of the sea boundary and handed them over to local South Korean authorities. North Korea said after that incident that South Korean fishing and naval vessels had invaded their territory.
Chinese fishing boats have been going farther afield to feed growing domestic demand for seafood as catches have decreased in waters close to China’s shores. Seoul has called for Beijing to employ tougher measures against Chinese boats illegally fishing in South Korea-controlled waters, which has caused bad feelings between the nations.
South Korean authorities last year seized about 600 Chinese ships for illegal fishing and more than 100 this year as of last month, most from waters off the western coast of South Korea, according to the South Korean Ministry of Oceans and Fisheries.
China expressed anger in 2014 when a South Korean coast guard shot and killed a Chinese boat captain who had violently resisted the inspection of his ship for suspected illegal fishing. In 2011, a South Korean coast guard officer was killed in a clash with Chinese fishermen in South Korean waters.
The western waters off the Korean Peninsula have also seen violent clashes between North Korea and South Korea, because Pyongyang does not recognize the sea boundary unilaterally drawn by the US-led UN Command at the end of the 1950 to 1953 Korean War.
The nations have fought three bloody naval skirmishes in the area since 1999, and last month, North Korea threatened to fire at South Korean warships if they entered its waters, after the South Korean navy fired warning shots to chase away two North Korean ships that crossed the boundary.
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