The Democratic People's Republic of Korea yesterday accused South Korean navy ships of violating the tense western sea border repeatedly in recent days, and warned that a naval clash could lead to war.

　　Hours after the warning from the DPRK Navy Command, a South Korean navy speedboat fired warning shots at a fishing boat from the DPRK that allegedly sailed 185 meters into South Korean waters.

　　The South Korean navy boat, which was 270 meters from the other boat, fired eight machine-gun rounds, and there was no hostility from North Korean navy ships in the area, said Kim Sung-ok, a spokesman at the South Korean military's Office of Joint Chiefs of Staff.

　　The DPRK fishing boat turned back in five minutes, Kim said.

　　South Korea's navy ships had also fired warning shots on Sunday when eight DPRK fishing boats allegedly entered the South's territorial waters.

　　Tension along the western sea border comes as the United States is mustering international pressure on the DPRK to abandon its suspected development of nuclear weapons. North Korea charges that the United States plans to invade.

　　"Now that there is an increasing danger of a nuclear war on the Korean Peninsula, any military clash between the North and the South may lead to a war," a spokesman for the DPRK Navy Command told Pyongyang's official news agency KCNA.

　　The unidentified spokesman accused South Korea of deploying warships closer to the border off the peninsula's west coast and infiltrating warships into North's territorial waters "every day, escalating the tensions."

　　South Korea denies such accusations. It instead says fishing boats from the North have violated the border on eight occasions since May 25.