North Korea and South Korea exchanged warning shots on Monday (October 24th) after accusing each other of crossing maritime borders. At the heart of this new episode is a North Korean merchant ship accused by Seoul of crossing the border between the two countries in the Yellow Sea.
With our correspondent in Seoul, Nicholas Rocca
This new sequence of tension which is part of a long episode of show of force, from the missile fired over Japanthree weeks ago.
As often during skirmishes at the border, the two Koreas blame each other for the accident. The warning shots of this Monday, October 24 are no exception to the rule. It was the South Koreans who drew first after a merchant ship from the north allegedly crossed the boundary line between the two countries in the Yellow Sea. But as the North Korean boat turned back, a South Korean warship would have followed it and Pyongyang then responded by sending ten warning shots.
Marine buffer zones
At the heart of what the two countries believe to be provocations are the maritime buffer zones established during a 2018 agreement, a time when it was still about dialogue. After a week of relative calm which coincides with the holding of the congress of the Chinese Communist Party, tensions are rising again in the peninsula.
For some experts, this North Korean incursion could be part of a strategy by Pyongyang aimed at testing the South Korean response capacity. But others believe that the reaction of Seoul, particularly firm in the face of an incursion by a merchant and non-military ship, is likely to worsen the situation.
►Also read: North Korea’s demonstration of military force near the South Korean border