Four South Korean soldiers were killed and one was missing on Saturday in a clash between South Korean and North Korean navy vessels in the Yellow Sea, military authorities said.
The defence ministry said 22 other South Korean seamen were injured in a fierce exchange of gunfire near the Yeonpyeong island off the west coast.
A 156-ton South Korean patrol boat manned by 27 soldiers was sunk, while a blazing North Korean boat trailing fumes of smoke was dragged back to its base, a ministry official said.
”Our entire armed forces were put on high alert along the border with North Korea,” a representative for the South Korean joint chiefs of staff said.
The clash occurred when two North Korean patrol boats, which were escorting fishing boats, crossed the inter-Korean sea border, known as the northern limit line (NLL), around 10:25am (01:25 GMT).
North Korean navy vessels have intruded nine times into South Korean waters across the NLL this year but Saturday’s clash marked the first exchange of fire between the two rivals in 2002.
In June 1999, a North Korean patrol boat was sunk by South Korean navy vessels in an exchange of fire near the area after it crossed the NLL while escorting North Korean fishing boats.
Scores of North Korean soldiers were believed to have been killed. – Sapa