Asia-Pacific

France calls for restraint on Korean Peninsula

(Xinhua)
Updated: 2010-01-29 11:59

PARIS: France on Thursday called for restraint on the Korean Peninsula after the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK) conducted artillery exercises in the west coast of the country.

France called on the DPRK to "refrain from any action that might aggravate the tension in the region and to resume dialogue with the international community," the French foreign ministry said in a statement.

The DPRK fired some 30 artillery shells Wednesday morning into waters of the "no-sail" zones it declared a day earlier. South Korean military responded by firing warning shots.

Pyongyang said it would carry on more firing drills in the same waters in the future.

The DPRK declared a shipping ban on Tuesday in the area south of the Northern Limit Line (NLL), which was fixed unilaterally by the US.-led United Nations Command after the 1950-1953 Korean War.

Seoul regards the NLL as the de-facto western inter-Korean maritime border, but Pyongyang does not accept it.