North Korea yesterday fired an artillery barrage near two South Korean border islands, the South Korean Ministry of Defense said, prompting a live-fire drill from the South’s military.
Residents of the islands were ordered to evacuate and ferries were suspended as South Korea held a live-fire exercise after the North’s barrage.
The live firing followed repeated warnings from the administration of North Korean leader Kim Jong-un that it was prepared for war against South Korea and the US.
Photo: EPA-EFE
The ministry said that the North’s military fired “over some 200 rounds” of artillery shells near Yeonpyeong and Baengnyeong, two sparsely populated South Korean islands that are just south of a de facto maritime border between the two sides.
The shells landed in the so-called buffer zone along the border, created by a 2018 deal that fell apart in November after Kim’s spy satellite launch.
Resuming artillery fire within the buffer zone “is a provocative act that threatens peace on the Korean Peninsula and escalates tensions,” South Korean Minister of National Defense Shin Won-sik said.
In response to Pyongyang’s actions, Seoul’s military would take “immediate, strong, and final retaliation — we must back peace with overwhelming force,” he said.
China called for “restraint” from all sides.
“We hope that all relevant parties maintain calm and restraint, refrain from taking actions that aggravate tensions, avoid further escalation of the situation, and create conditions for the resumption of meaningful dialogue,” Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs spokesman Wang Wenbin (汪文斌) told reporters.
Yeonpyeong, which has about 2,000 residents, is about 115km west of Seoul.
Baengnyeong, with a population of 4,900, is about 210km west of Seoul.
Local officials on both islands told reporters that residents had been told to evacuate, describing the order as a “preventative measure” ahead of the South Korean military drill.
The order was lifted soon afterward, Yonhap news agency reported.
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