S. Korea slams N. Korea over provocations in no-sail zones

SEOUL, Jan. 27 (Yonhap) -- South Korea on Wednesday expressed its regret to North
Korea through a military hotline over the latter's firing of artillery shells
near the inter-Korean sea border, and demanded that the North immediately cancel
its so-called "no-sail" zone.
The South Korean defense ministry faxed a message to North Korea via the
western-side line, calling Pyongyang's recent actions a "grave provocation" that
undermines the truce between the two divided countries and urging the communist
country to immediately halt threatening actions.
Seoul also demanded that North Korea cancel its previous declaration of a
"no-sail" zone in waters near the inter-Korean border, saying "the North's
setting up of a so-called no-sail zone and firing zone is clearly a grave
provocation which ignores the armistice agreement and the South-North agreement
on nonagression."
North Korea fired dozens of artillery shells into waters near the disputed sea
border earlier Wednesday, escalating tension on the divided peninsula two days
after Pyongyang declared the waters near the South's northernmost islands of
Baeknyeong and Daecheong in the Yellow Sea as no-sail zones.
(END)