Marines conduct maritime reconnaissance, Sunday, off the coast of Yeonpyeong Island near the inter-Korean maritime border where a South Korean official was shot dead by North Korean troops last week after floating into the North's territorial waters. Yonhap

By Jung Da-min
North Korean killing of South Korean official deepens internal division 2020-09-29 15:56  |  Politics


Disputes may rise again over the inter-Korean maritime border in the West Sea, following last week's killing of a South Korean official by North Korean troops in the North's territorial waters.

While the South Korean military is continuing search operations for the body on this side of the Northern Limit Line (NLL), the de facto inter-Korean sea boundary, Pyongyang warned Seoul against "trespassing" into North Korean waters and creating tensions that could lead to another unsavory event.

The North's state-run Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) carried the warning, Sunday, calling for the South to immediately stop trespassing across what it called the "West Sea Maritime Military Demarcation Line."

The South Korean military, however, flatly refuted the North's claim, saying the NLL — designated by then-commander of the United Nations Command Gen. Mark Clark in August 1953 — is the de facto maritime demarcation line between the Koreas and the NLL should be observed and respected.

The NLL was drawn up one month after the 1953 armistice and the North did not object until 1973 when it began to insist on nullifying the NLL, committing provocations such as sinking South Korean fishing vessels and kidnapping those aboard boats in the waters near the border area.

But the North acknowledged the NLL in 1984 when it received flood relief supplies from the South. The North did not object when the International Civil Aviation Organization updated its Flight Information Region of the Korean Peninsula in 1993 in accordance with the NLL.

But the North changed its attitude again in 1999 when it crossed the NLL in June causing the first Battle of Yeonpyeong by preemptively firing at a South Korean ship. The North insisted on the nullification of the NLL in September that year. North Korea's military provocations and military collisions between the Koreas continued in the West Sea, including the Second Battle of Yeonpyeong in 2002 and sinking of the South Korean warship Cheonan in 2010.

Through the Sept. 19 Comprehensive Military Agreement signed as part of the Pyongyang Joint Declaration in 2018, the two Koreas agreed to designate the maritime border area of the West Sea as a "peace zone" but the recent incident has brought further tension to the region.

Some military experts say the North was mentioning the NLL issue to simply reject the South's request to launch a joint investigation into the incident, as it claimed it was already carrying out operations in search of the South Korean official's body. The South Korean military said earlier the body was burnt by North Korean military personnel but the North denied it, saying they only burnt a floating item on which the official had been drifting.

"The message from Pyongyang is clear: There will be no additional joint investigation as the North Korea's supreme leader Kim Jong-un has already apologized for the incident," said Choi Yoon-cheol, an assistant professor at Sangmyung University's Department of National Defense.