North and South Korea exchanged warning shots and missiles at dawn today, Monday, near the sea border between them.
And Yonhap News Agency (official) said that the South Korean army fired warning shots after it suspected that a North Korean ship had penetrated.
The South Korean military's Joint Chiefs of Staff said it had turned back a North Korean merchant ship that had crossed the Northern Border Line, the de facto maritime border between the two Koreas.
On the other hand, the Korean Central News Agency said that North Korea fired 10 artillery shells off its western coast on Monday, in response to warning shots fired by South Korea at a North Korean boat across the maritime border of the two Koreas.
A spokesman for the North Korean Army's General Staff said that Pyongyang fired 10 shells from several missile launchers at approximately 05:15 am (20:15 GMT Sunday), after the South Korean military fired warning shots at around 03:50 am. .
On October 14, Seoul imposed its first unilateral sanctions on Pyongyang in nearly 5 years, blacklisting 15 individuals and 16 North Korean institutions involved in missile development.
South Korean President Yoon Seok-yeol told reporters that Pyongyang was "making indiscriminate provocations", vowing to take tough countermeasures.
For its part, South Korea's National Security Council condemned the North's "escalation of tension" and described its moves as a violation of a bilateral military agreement dating back to 2018, which prohibits "hostile acts" in the border area.
Recently, the pace of northern missile tests has accelerated, leading the United States and its Southeast Asian allies to believe that Pyongyang may conduct a new nuclear test.
On the other hand, the United States and South Korea recently carried out joint exercises, during which they fired missiles, and the forces of both sides trained to hit targets in the sea.