Ship That Crossed Northern Limit Line Was North Korean Patrol Ship

It has been confirmed that a ship that received a warning shot by South Korean naval vessels after passing the Northern Limit Line (NLL) in the West Sea on July 14 was a North Korean patrol boat.

“We concluded that the ship in question was a North Korean patrol boat, departing from Jangsangot, Hwanghae province, after putting together information from the Korean Navy Tactics Data System (KNTDS) at Second West Sea Fleet headquarters and from North Korea Communication Wiretapping Troops,” said a government joint investigation group source on July 18, which is looking into the “Marine hotline false report case.”

North Korea sent a telephone correspondence to the Defense Ministry on July 15 and insisted, “Even though we sent a message to South Korea saying: ‘the ship now descending is a Chinese ship’, South Korea did not reply.”

“Three Chinese fishing boats also trespassed across the NLL, but the North Korean patrol boat did pass the line and it was the North Korean patrol boat that we fired warning shots at,” said an official from the joint investigation group.

The joint investigation group confirmed that the vessels fired warning shots after North Korea’s hotline call, and that the Second Fleet commander placed an order to fire before he was informed of that fact.

The joint investigation group will announce the results of its investigation regarding the false military report on July 19 and suggest punishment of the parties involved to the Defense Ministry and the joint chiefs of staffs.

It was known that the Navy insisted, “We were unable to confirm the fact merely by a response from North Korea because North Korea didn’t use pre-arranged signals between the two Koreas such as ‘Halla (South)’ and ‘Baekdu (North).’”

Meanwhile, North Korea did not reply on July 18 to telephone correspondence asking for procedures of working-level talks between North and South Korean generals, which were to be held on July 19, leaving whether the talks will take place or not uncertain.

Ho-Won Choi bestiger@donga.com