Chinese fishing boats are avoiding the waters near a volatile sea border between South and North Korea amid growing tensions on the Korean peninsula, military authorities said Tuesday.
Their absence was noticed after North Korea late last month announced it was scrapping peace accords with the South, including a 1991 pact in which it recognised their Yellow Sea border as an interim frontier.
The announcement fuelled fears of clashes in the area, the scene of bloody naval battles in 1999 and 2002.
"For several days Chinese boats have stopped fishing in waters near the inter-Korean sea border off the west coast," a spokesman for the South's Joint Chiefs of Staff told AFP.
"We are closely watching the situation, although our military has (already) maintained a high level of vigilance in the area this year."
No unusual movements have been spotted north of the border and North Korean fishing boats are operating normally in their own waters, the spokesman said.
Chinese authorities recently advised boat crews to be cautious when fishing in the area, Yonhap news agency said. It quoted an unidentified official as saying the warning could have caused some boats to stay away.
Even though winter is the least productive season for crabbing in the area, about 50 boats were previously in operation, Yonhap said.
Inter-Korean relations have steadily deteriorated since South Korea's conservative President Lee Myung-Bak took office in February last year.
Lee rolled back his liberal predecessors' decade-long engagement policy towards Pyongyang, and said major economic assistance would depend on the North's willingness to scrap its nuclear weapons programme.
He also vowed to review summit deals signed in 2000 and 2007 between the North and his predecessors.
The policy has enraged the North, which has suspended dialogue, imposed tight border controls and warned that armed conflict could break out.
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