North Korea has warned South Korean military and fishing boats to stay clear of a disputed maritime area, or risk being fired on. Pyongyang's official Korean Central News Agency Monday said the move is a response to what the North calls "frequent intrusions by warmongers in the South Korean military." North Korea has refused for decades to accept a maritime border known as the Northern Limit Line, mandated by the United Nations after a 1953 armistice halted fighting in the Korean War.  North and South Korea fought two deadly naval battles in the area in 1999 and 2002, and the South badly

North Korea says South Korea will pay "an expensive price" for firing at a North Korean patrol boat on Tuesday. The official Rodong Sinmun newspaper published a commentary Thursday saying the clash in the Yellow Sea was not an accident, but instead was a "premeditated act of aggression" by the South.

Washington has urged North Korea not to escalate tensions in the Yellow Sea following a naval skirmish between the North and South Korean navies Tuesday. White House press secretary Robert Gibbs says Washington hopes Pyongyang will not take any further actions in the area that could be seen as an escalation. South Korea's military says one of its warships first fired warning shots at a North Korean boat that it says crossed the Korean maritime border off the west coast of the Korean peninsula. South Korea says the North K