North Korea: More than 200 artillery shell rounds have been reportedly fired by North Korea towards two South Korean islands and into the sea close to a tense maritime border.
Seoul called it “an act of provocation.” Before conducting its own live fire drills, South Korea ordered civilians to take refuge on the island.
The military of South Korea stated that all of the shells fell on the northern side of the sea border and that there was no harm to either civilians or soldiers as a result of the firing.
“This is an act of provocation that escalates tension and threatens peace on the Korean peninsula,” Mr. Lee Sung-joon, a spokesperson for the South Korean Joint Chiefs of Staff, remarked.
The defence ministry in Seoul observed that, “We sternly warn that North Korea bears full responsibility for this escalating crisis and strongly urge them to immediately cease these actions.
“Our military closely tracks and monitors the situation in close coordination with the United States, and will take appropriate measures in response to North Korea’s provocations,” the ministry added.
The evacuation order may have been a reaction to Seoul’s military exercises or Pyongyang’s artillery fire, but the defence ministry had not yet confirmed this.
According to an official on Yeonpyeong island, which is located immediately south of the contentious Northern Limit Line (NLL) sea border, the South Korean military ordered the island’s residents to relocate into bomb shelters.
Since the 1990s, Pyongyang has maintained that the NLL, which was established at the conclusion of the 1950–53 Korean War, should be located far to the south.
2010 saw civilians among the casualties caused by North Korean artillery strikes on Yeonpyeong island. Pyongyang said that Seoul’s live-fire drills, which involved shells being dropped into its territorial waters, were what set it off.
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