S.Korea returns back DPRK fishing boat crossing maritime border

South Korea's military on Wednesday returned a Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK) fishing boat back to the north after the boat crossed the inter-Korean maritime border, Yonhap news agency reported.

The DPRK vessel was found in eastern waters 21 km south of the Northern Limit Line (NLL) at about 3:40 a.m. local time, according to the Joint Chiefs of Staff (JCS) cited by Yonhap.

After an inspection, the South Korean military returned the DPRK fishing boat to the north at about 7:10 a.m. as DPRK sailors didn't have intention to defect to South Korea.

The boat seemed to go off the right course mistakenly near the NLL, which Pyongyang has never accepted as a sea boundary as it was drawn by U.S.-led forces after the Korean War ended in 1953.

On May 27, a DPRK patrol boat and a fishing boat crossed the NLL in western waters and returned back to the north after warning shots from the South Korean military.

(APD)