Hotline between South-North Vessels may be Blocked when in need

A North Korean small fisher boat crossed the Northern Limit Line (NLL) and sailed down to the south in the morning of June 30. However, it is reported that the hotline between the vessels of the West Sea, which the South and North have recently agreed on, did not work properly.

The Joint Chiefs of Staff said, “A powerboat of North Korea drifted nearby Yeonpyung-do and crossed about 0.3 miles (approximately 550 meters) to the south of the NLL,” and added, “Our naval vessel tried to contact the vessel in the North to notify them of this through the common frequency network of the international vessel of commerce, but didn’t get a reply.”

Our navy provided a portable compass to the three North Koreans on board and guided them to return to North as they explained, “The fog drove the boat out of its course and we came into the sea area of the South.”

During this process, the naval vessels of the South tried to communicate with those of the North three times through the common frequency of the international vessels of commerce, which South and North Korea recently agreed on, but the attempts were not successful.

The Joint Chiefs of Staff assume:

–The naval vessels of North Korea were 14 kilometers away from the distance effective for the common frequency of the international vessels of commerce.

–The possibility that they might have turned off the frequency.

–The possibility that they did not respond to our communication signal on purpose.

On May 12, South and North Korea agreed to communicate between the naval vessels by using the frequency of the international vessels of commerce in case of possible collisions to prevent accidental conflicts of vessels of the two sides and completed virtual communication training on May 14. On June 30, in the second working-level talks of South-North Generals held in Paju-shi, Gyeonggi, the Joint Chiefs of Staff discussed the reasons for of this communication failure and improvement plans for the future with the North.

Ho-Won Choi bestiger@donga.com