North Korea in a statement has announced that, this time it will employ all necessary steps and will retaliate mercilessly in order to secure and protect the Yellow Sea border it shares with South Korea. Pyongyang has also stated that South Korea will be given proper retribution for the naval clash that took place  last week between the two countries.

In a statement made by the North Korean military to South Korea, it said,

“Our side reminds your side again that there exists only a demarcation line in the West Sea (Yellow Sea) set by our side, and from this moment on we will take merciless military measures to protect it.”

Conflict of the Yellow Sea border has been long standing since the Korean War in the 1950s, when the United Nations brokered a peace between the two countries. However,  Pyongyang has constantly maintained that the border line should be drawn further south of its present location.

The warning from North Korea has come at a time when U.S President, Barack Obama is scheduled to visit South Korea and discuss with the country’s leadership about Pyongyan’s nuclear ambitions. The Korean Central News Agency, which the media arm of North Korea quoted the letter, that has asked a formal apology from Seoul regarding the naval confrontation in which a North Korean patrol was heavily damaged. As per the letter from Pyongyang,

“The South side will be held responsible for acts aimed at destroying national reconciliation and unity and hampering peace and unification, and it will have to pay dearly. The South mobilized several ships and fired thousands of shots for the rampage in the West Sea. It was a pre-planned conspiracy by the South’s right-wing and military warmongers, aimed at blocking incipient moves towards reconciliation on the Korean peninsula with a third clash in the West Sea.”

However, Seoul has stated that the North Korean boat crossed the border despite several warnings and commenced unprovoked preemptive firing  on the South Korean naval forces. The South Korean forces returned fire and damaged the patrol boat. According to the South Korean defense officials, the Seoul sent four patrol boats into the disputed region and the boats fired some 5,000 rounds on the North Korean patrol boat.

Via Space War.