South Korea on Monday said it will bolster efforts to counter illegal Chinese fishing in its waters, including issuing more firearms to coast guard officers and raising penalties against offenders.
The move comes after a South Korean coast guard officer died when he was stabbed by a Chinese fishing-boat captain earlier this month.
Seoul has been under domestic pressure to make a robust response to the incident, which came amid a rise in fishing by Chinese boats in South Korean territorial waters this year. Chinese fishing crews, seeking richer catches outside their regular fishing grounds, have become a flash point in broader territorial tensions involving China and its neighbors.
As well as clashing with countries such as Indonesia, the Philippines, Taiwan and Vietnam over sovereignty in the South China Sea in resource-related disputes, China was drawn into a diplomatic spat with Japan when a Chinese fishing boat and a Japanese coast-guard vessel collided in the East China Sea last year.
The Korean government says between 2,000 and 3,000 Chinese fishing boats operate illegally in Korean territory each day during peak season. Between January and November this year, 497 ships were caught, compared with 370 last year. A spokesman for China's Foreign Ministry said he couldn't immediately comment late Monday.
Korean coast guard officers cite increasingly aggressive behavior by Chinese fishermen trying to avoid arrest.
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