Four ministers will visit islands near the Northern Limit Line(NLL) in the Yellow Sea as a first step to turning the area into a peace zone in accordance with the Panumjeom Declaration. 

Defense Minister Song Young-moo, Unification Minister Cho Myoung-gyon, Foreign Minister Kang Kyung-wha and Oceans and Fisheries Minister Kim Young-choon will make the visit on Saturday. They will inspect the islands of Baengnyeong and Yeonpyeong and receive briefings at Navy and Marine bases located there. 

The ministers plan to devise a plan to create joint fishing zones with the North before meeting with fishermen of the two islands and gathering their opinions. 

Under the Panmunjeom Declaration signed during last week’s inter-Korean summit, the two Koreas agreed to devise a practical scheme to turn the areas around the NLL into a maritime peace zone in order to prevent accidental military clashes and guarantee safe fishing activities. 

The NLL was imposed by UN forces in August 1953. It extends between the South’s five northwestern islands and waters off the North’s Hwanghae provinces.

The North had rejected the NLL from 1999 and declared waters south of the area as the actual military demarcation line.

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