Tag: NLL

It looks like the Moon administration is about to surrender sovereignty of their side of the NLL to the Kim regime:

The leaders of South and North Korea agreed Friday to establish a peace and cooperation zone on their disputed western sea border, a move that could prevent future clashes.

The disputed sea demarcation line, which Seoul has enforced, has been the scene of two deadly naval clashes between the two Koreas since 1999.

On Friday, South Korean President Moon Jae-in and North Korean leader Kim Jong-un held a historic summit at the border village of Panmunjom and agreed to turn the area into a special region that can be used safety by both sides.

The agreement could also potentially allow South and North Korean fishermen to jointly operate their boats in the area while allowing maritime authorities crack down on illegal Chinese fishing.  [Yonhap]

You can read more at the link, but this is the same area where repeated attacks by the North Koreans have been executed against the ROK.  In effort to appease North Korean aggression, the Moon administration is proposing giving up sovereignty of South Korean territory to the North Koreans to fish.

So why do the North Koreans want the NLL changed?  Well this map shows why:

The prior proposed joint fishing areas on the NLL nearly mirror what North Korea claims to be their ocean waters.  The giving up of sovereignty of this maritime territory will make it harder to defend the South Korean islands along the NLL.  Such an agreement would also set a precedent that the Kim regime’s claim against the legitimacy of the NLL is valid.  The last time a South Korean leftist government tried to give away the NLL the ROK Defense Ministry was furious.  It will be interesting to see how they respond this time to this news.

With the US military ready to respond to any nuclear or ICBM provocations from North Korea, I wonder if the Kim regime is setting conditions for justifying a provocation in the Yellow Sea instead with this recent announcement:

North Korea argued Saturday that South Korean navy warships have increasingly violated their disputed western sea border, heightening tension on the Korean Peninsula.

“The South Korean puppet navy warships’ intrusion into the territorial waters of the DPRK side in the West Sea of Korea has recently been on explosive increase,” the North’s state-run Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) said in an English-language report monitored in Seoul. DPRK stands for the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea, North Korea’s official name.

The KCNA argued that 101 navy warships infiltrated the inter-Korean maritime border on 81 occasions in April, which is almost twofold tallied in March.  [Korea Herald]

The Kim regime has never agreed to the Northern Limit Line established after the Korean War in the Yellow Sea.  They have a different definition of the border which means from their point of view the ROK ships are intruding in their territory.

North Korea may calculate that launching a provocation in the Yellow Sea may not trigger a US military response and at the same time allow the Kim regime to show power and save face despite the massive pressure the regime is facing.

A speed boat from the First Naval Fleet guards a group of boats catching fish in the country’s northernmost Jeodo fishery ground bordering North Korea in the East Sea on April 11, 2017. Located just 1 kilometer away from the inter-Korean border, the rich Jeodo area is opened only between April and December under the Navy’s strict protection against possible North Korean provocations. (Photo courtesy of First Naval Fleet) (Yonhap)

This is actually a pretty good idea which also makes me wonder if it can also help deter North Korean submarine activity as well in the area?:

North Korea on Monday condemned the artificial reef structures being placed in the West Sea by South Korea to control Chinese illegal fishing activities, calling it part of Seoul’s military provocations against Pyongyang’s maritime demarcation line.

In March, the Ministry of Oceans and Fisheries (MOF) said it will set up a total of eight artificial reef structures in the eastern waters off Baengnyeongdo, Daecheongdo and Socheongdo, all located south of the northern limit line (NLL), to prevent Chinese fishing vessels from intruding into the South Korean waters.

Drawn by the U.S.-led United Nations Command at the end of the 1950-53 Korean War, the NLL is the de facto sea border between the two Koreas, although the North has not recognized it as such.

According to the state-run Korean Central News Agency (KCNA), the West Sea Fleet of the Navy of the Korean People’s Army (KPA) said South Korea’s new artificial structures can only be seen a encroachments on its waters.

“The fish-breeding reef, structure weighing dozens of tons, is being set up in the sensitive waters which witnessed three skirmishes in the past, a fact clearly showing the provocative nature,” KCNA said.

Such provocative acts have revealed Seoul’s “sinister intention” to spark a military conflict in the world’s most dangerous waters, the North’s state-run media outlet claimed.  [Yonhap]

It looks like the North Koreans could be up to no good again in the western islands:

South Korea’s military is on high alert for possible North Korean military provocations after the communist country increased the amount of weapons and troops on its western islands, government sources said Wednesday.

“North Korea has deployed weapons, surveillance assets and troops to its islands, Galdo and Arido, north of the Northern Limit Line (NLL) in the Yellow Sea,” one government source said, asking not to be named. “Our (South Korean) military is mindful of the possibility of sudden provocations by the North in the region.”

The NLL is a de facto maritime border between the Koreas.

Possible provocations could include shelling attacks on South Korean warships or seizing South Korean fishing boats in the tense border areas, other sources indicated.

In response, the South Korean military has placed its troops on alert and increased its sea border surveillance using unmanned aerial vehicles, including Israel-made Heron drones, the sources said.

They said the North has recently installed military bunkers on the previously uninhabited Galdo and deployed about 60 military forces and six 122-millimeter multiple-launch rocket systems there.

A squad of 20 soldiers has been deployed on Arido, also formerly uninhabited, along with surveillance radar and a camera, according to the sources.  [Yonhap]

This is just more evidence that the Kim regime is using the Chinese fishing boats as an asymmetric warfare tactic against South Korea:

South Korea urged North Korea on Monday to immediately stop making military threats such as shelling the South’s Yeonpyeong Island.

North Korea’s Korean Central News Agency called on South Korea to stop “reckless military provocations” by continuing its crackdowns on illegal Chinese fishing boats in the neutral waters of the Hangang River estuary near the western sea border. The state-run news agency said that such actions could spark a retaliation from the North similar to the attack on Yeonpyeong Island in November of 2010 which resulted in four people dead and 18 injured.

South Korea’s unification ministry responded by saying such rhetoric is not appropriate and do not help improve inter-Korean ties .  [Arirang News]

You can read more at the link.

What gets me is that the ROK authorities did not jail this Chinese fisherman, but instead just booked him and let him go:

The captain of a Chinese fishing boat was arrested on Friday over allegedly operating near the inter-Korean maritime border and using an illegal drug, the South Korean Coast Guard said.

Coast guard officers found methamphetamine inside the boat that they seized in waters off Socheong Island in Incheon, west of Seoul, the previous day.

On Thursday, they confiscated 0.12 gram of the drug and an inhaler from the ship’s pilothouse after taking it to a coast guard station in Incheon. During an investigation into the captain, whose name was withheld, the 48-year-old man confessed that he had bought them shortly before the boat left the port of Donggang in China’s Liaoning Province around 5 p.m. on June 9, they said.

The captain, who purchased the drug and the inhaler from an acquaintance for 240 yuan and 20 yuan respectively, is suspected of inhaling the stimulant three times when the boat sailed near the Northern Limit Line (NLL), the inter-Korean de facto western maritime border, this month.

He has also administered the drug about 10 times in China since last year, they said. “I used the drug in secret at the pilothouse to beat fatigue,” he was quoted as saying. He tested positive in a urine test for the drug.

The Coast Guard plans to book the Chinese man without physical detention on charges of suspected violation of the illegal fishing control law concerning South Korea’s exclusive economic zone. In addition, it will book him on suspicion of violating the drug control law.  [Yonhap]

You can read more at the link, but I maintain that the ROK should jail these guys and auction off their boats.  This would be needed to deterrent to stop the illegal fishing.

This announcement by North Korea makes it pretty clear that they are deliberately organizing the Chinese fishing boats to intrude into South Korea as a form of asymmetric warfare against the South:

North Korea on Monday slammed South Korea for its operation with the United Nations Command (UNC) to repel Chinese fishing boats operating illegally in neutral waters between the two Koreas, calling the move a “military provocation.”

This marks the North’s first official reaction to South Korea and the UNC’s joint crackdown on Chinese fishing vessels operating in the neutral waters of the Han River estuary.

Fishing vessels that are officially registered with either South or North Korea are allowed into the neutral waters. Each side could send military police officers into the no man’s land to enforce rules under the armistice agreement.

South Korea’s move is aimed at “escalating the intrusion into the hotspot waters in the West Sea of Korea into the inland to secure a chance for military provocation,” the Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) said in an English dispatch.  [Yonhap]

You can read more at the link, but I continue to believe if the ROK seizes the illegal Chinese fishing boats and then auctions them off and gives jail time to the crew members that would end the incentive for these people to illegally fish in South Korean waters.

This incident involving a Chinese fishing boat shows the very dangerous situation that could have materialized along the inter-Korean Northern Limit Line (NLL) because the Chinese government absolutely refuses to control their fishermen:

A Chinese vessel illegally fishing off Yeonpyeong Island in the Yellow Sea was seized by Incheon Coast Guard – but not before trying to flee with Korean officers still on board.

A 50-ton Chinese boat illegally caught some 45 kilograms (99 pounds) of crab and small fish in waters 8.6 kilometers (5.3 miles) to the south of the Northern Limit Line, the de facto maritime border between the two Koreas, at around 4:40 p.m. Saturday afternoon, according to the Incheon Coast Guard Sunday. This was in violation of Korea’s exclusive economic zone.

During the raid, 14 Korean Coast Guard officers boarded the Chinese fishing vessel to seize it.

But Chinese sailors blockaded the wheelhouse and tried to take off with the Coast Guard officers still on board. They managed to sail around 1 kilometer to the north before control was seized.

This led to the arrest of all seven Chinese sailors on board, who were transported to Incheon.

Had the South Korean Coast Guard crossed over into North Korean waters, it could have given Pyongyang a pretext for some form of retaliation.   [Joong Ang Ilbo]

You can read more at the link, but I would not be surprised if the Chinese government puts out some statement trying to put blame on the Korean Coast Guard for the incident.  I have always believed that these fishermen need to be jailed and their boats auctioned off as a deterrent to this activity.  These Chinese fishermen have not only injured and murdered Korean Coast Guard personnel in the past, but now they are even threatening to start a war with North Korea.

Something needs to be done and maybe the Argentine approach of just sinking them is the way to go.

It looks like the normal probing that occurs along the NLL by the North Koreans:

A North Korean patrol ship crossed the maritime border into the South on Saturday during a beefed-up crackdown on Chinese fishing boats operating near the border, the South Korean military said Sunday.

The South Korean Navy ship fired five warning shots with a 40 mm-caliber gun. The ship retreated to the North 18 minutes after the shots were fired. No damage was seen on the ship, Seoul authorities said.

Pyongyang called the South’s use of the gun a “deliberate military provocation,” warning that the inter-Korean relations could return to the point before the two sides struck a comprehensive deal on Aug. 25 to defuse cross-border tensions.

The North’s vessel came some 700 meters into the South Korean waters at around 3:30 p.m., according to Seoul authorities. At the time, the vessel was carrying out a stepped-up clampdown on some 100 Chinese vessels operating near the Northern Limit Line, the de facto sea border.

“In the process of (the North) making its retreat, there was no naval clash or anything,” said a military official on condition of anonymity. “We are keeping closer tabs on the North Korean military’s movements and strengthening our readiness posture.”  [Korea Herald]

You can read more at the link.