U.N. Command in Korea targets illegal Chinese fishing boats

SEOUL, June 10 (UPI) -- The United Nations Command in South Korea conducted an unprecedented joint action in waters near the western coast of the peninsula.

The measure was taken in response to the increased presence of illegal Chinese fishing boats in South Korean territorial waters and a neutral buffer zone, Stars and Stripes reported Friday.

The operation included the deployment of 24 members of a military police unit and four speedboats and is expected to continue Saturday, a Seoul defense official told Yonhap.

South Korea's joint chiefs of staff also said the action resulted in the eviction of 10 Chinese fishing boats from the area. At least some of them moved to a zone near the North Korean county of Yonan, according to local press.

Commander of U.S. Forces Korea Gen. Vincent Brooks, who also supervises the U.N. Command, said the presence of unauthorized fishing boats in the estuary where the Han River flows into the Yellow Sea, was a violation of the 1953 armistice that ended the 1950-53 Korean War.

"United Nations Command takes its responsibility to maintain the armistice very seriously. We had a responsibility to act and we are doing that," Brooks said in the statement.

Chinese fishing activity in South Korean and neutral waters has increased since 2014.

The fishermen are drawn to an area that is a rich source of blue crabs in the spring, and they have begun numbering in the hundreds in the first five months of 2016, a South Korean ministry official said.

Frustration has been mounting among South Korean fishermen who see a threat to their livelihoods.

A group of local fishermen recently took matters into their own hands, dragging two Chinese fishing boats back to the South Korean island of Yeonpyeong, which was the target of North Korean shelling in 2010.

Local fishermen said the Chinese boats use a technique known as bull trawling that is damaging the seabed.