Posted June. 15, 2001 20:30,
Upon the repeated crossing of the Northern Limitation Line (NLL) by the North Korean merchant ships, the Ministry of National Defense (MND) decided yesterday to revise the related regulations after conducting a comprehensive examination of the regulation on operations as well as battle regulation. A high-ranking official in the Ministry of National Defense announced that ``as the National Defense Committee at the National Assembly urged the MND to examine the regulation on military operations on 14th, the MND decided to prepare the countermeasure as well as the range of the military operations concerning the North Korean private ships but not the military ships.`` This official said that ``it is realistically difficult for the Navy to defend the whole NLL sea area since the NLL covers 42.5 miles of the West Sea and 218 miles of the East Sea. Although the military has defended the NLL by dividing it into the Navy’s core defense waters and the international waters, it can consider further subdividing this area.``
Meanwhile, the Joint Chiefs of Staff (JCS) announced that a small North Korean cargo boat called the `Nampo` (392 ton), which was heading from Japan to Wonsan port on the East Sea, crossed the NLL 82 miles of the east coast Thursday at 11:10 pm. `Nampo` departed from Maizru, Japan, with a crew of 16 and bikes on board. The JCS said that ``the incident should be taken as `passing` since the `Nampo` crossed the outskirts of the ROK Navy’s Core Defense Area.`` The `Nampo II`, which had crossed the NLL 35 miles of East Sea Wednesday, completely sailed away from the naval operations zone and were heading toward the Tsushima Island.