A South Korean court Wednesday sentenced a Chinese fisherman who stabbed a South Korean coast guard officer to death to 23 years in jail.

Cheng Dawei, captain of a Chinese fishing boat, was also fined $17,700 by the Seoul High Court in a second trial of the case.

Liu Liancheng, captain of another boat, was sentenced to four years in jail and a fine of $17,700.

Cheng, 43, was sentenced to 30 years in jail in April for killing Lee Cheong-ho, a South Korean coast guard, with a knife and seriously injuring another officer when they boarded his boat during a raid on December 12.

The Chinese foreign ministry has said China and South Korea have not yet demarcated a boundary for exclusive economic zones in the Yellow Sea, therefore the rulings based on the exclusive economic zone law were unacceptable.

In 2001, China and South Korea reached an agreement on regulating fishing activities in the area that is still not demarcated, so both countries should deal with any conflicts within the framework of this agreement, not a country's own national laws, experts said.