Related Stories:

S. Korean Warships Intrude into North (KCNA on June 6)

S. Korean Warships in N. Korean Waters Again (KCNA on June 9)

Military Provocations Continue (KCNA on June 10)

Statement of Spokesman for KPA Mission in Panmunjom (June 11)

Pyongyang said on May 15 in Panmunjom talks with U.S.-backed U.N. military officials that it has never recognized a UN-drawn sea boundary around which the north and south Korean military reportedly exchanged gunfire on the same day after nine consecutive days of confrontation.

“The northern boundary line, fixed by south Korea at will, could never be accepted as only five islets on the West Sea of Korea belong to it under the Armistice Agreement,” the KCNA quoted Ri Chang Bok, chief delegate of the Korean People’s Army as saying in the talks which were convened at the truce village of Panmunjom.

The disputed waters lie just south of a U.N.-imposed sea border between the north Korean mainland and five south Korean islands, about 60 miles northwest of Seoul.

The U.N. Command unilaterally demarcated the maritime frontier in 1953 and created a buffer zone just south it, which the north has never agreed on but claimed as its own territory.

“For over ten days from June 4, the south Korean rulers infiltrated warships of the navy deep into the territorial waters of our side southwest of the Kangryong Peninsula, South Hwanghae Province, and tried to block our peaceful boats from their routine fishing while threatening the safety of our fishermen.

“The provocations were a wanton violation of the Korean Armistice Agreement,  and they were deliberate and premeditated ones to bring the situation on the Korean Peninsula to the phase of War,” said General Ri Chang Bok to the U.N. side.

The KCNA reported on the same day that the June 15 attack by south Korean warships sunk its gunboat and damaged three other vessels, and demanded an apology.