North Korea warns South against violating border to search for official's body in sea

North Korea warned South Korea on Sunday to refrain from violating its sea border amid search for the body of the fisheries official killed in North Korea waters.

Pyongyang said it will search for the body of the South Korean official and hand it over if they find it, Yonhap reported.

Last week, North Korean soldiers had fatally shot a 47-year-old South Korean official near the Yellow Sea border between the two countries. Seoul has been searching for the body since then.

"According to a report by the western fleet of our navy, the south side has mobilised many vessels including warships to an action presumed to be a search operation and let them intrude into our territorial waters since September 25. It arouses our due vigilance as it may lead to another awful incident," the Korean Central News Agency was quoted as saying by Yonhap.

"We can never overlook any intrusion into our territorial waters and we seriously warn the south side against it. We urge the south side to immediately halt the intrusion across the military demarcation line in the west sea that may lead to an escalation of tensions," it said.

Earlier this week, the South Korean troops had raised combat readiness after it turned out that the country's fisheries official had been shot dead in the neighbouring country.

On Friday, North Korean leader Kim Jong-un had apologised for the killing of the South Korean official, saying he is deeply sorry for the "unexpected" and "unfortunate" incident that happened in his country's waters.

-ANI

Also Read: North Korea: Kim Jong-un's sister Kim Yo-jong becomes de facto second-in-command