N. Korea fires over 200 shells into waters near border islands west of Incheon

북한군, 연평도•백령도 북방서 해안포 200여발 사격 우리 군도 맞대응 We start with North Korea firing hundreds of artillery shells off its western coast this morning, near South Korean islands located close to the inter-Korean border, as it scrapped the 2018 military pact a few months ago. The South Korean military took action in response. Our defense correspondent Choi Min-jung leads us off. North Korea has fired, what is presumed to be coastal artillery shells, into waters near South Korea’s border islands, west of Incheon. Seoul’s Joint Chiefs of Staff detected that more than 2-hundred artillery shells were fired from 9 AM to 11 AM Friday, from areas north of South Korea’s Baengnyeong-do and Yeonpyeong-do Islands. The shells splashed into waters north of the Northern Limit Line, in the maritime buffer zone. The last time North Korea opened fire in the maritime buffer zone was around a year ago in waters off Gangwon-do Province. But Friday’s provocation, comes after the regime terminated the September 19th inter-Korean military agreement last November, following South Korea’s partial suspension of the pact in protest of the regime’s spy satellite launch. Under the agreement signed in 2018,.. a maritime buffer zone was established in the NLL to prevent armed conflict, prohibiting such artillery fire. South Korea’s military denounced the provocation,.. calling it a threat to peace on the Korean Peninsula, and vowed to take action. “We sternly warn that North Korea is solely responsible for the escalated crisis, and strongly urge the North to stop immediately. Our military is tracking and monitoring the situation under close cooperation with the United States, and will implement measures corresponding to North Korea’s provocations.“ Shortly after the warning, the South Korean military conducted maritime live-fire drills at the northwestern border islands,.. under the watch of the defense minister. These were the first such exercises conducted by the South Korean military in the maritime buffer zone, since the inter-Korean military agreement was signed in 2018. Minister Shin Won-sik stressed that the military must be able to, quote, “completely destroy the enemy, so that it will never dare to provoke again.“ The JCS said no damage had been done to the islands’ residents or the military following the North’s provocation. However, South Korea did order civilians to evacuate to shelters at around noon,.. at the request of the South Korean military. Choi Min-jung, Arirang News. #NorthKorea #military_provocation #inter_Korean_relations #Korean_Peninsula #artillery_shell #Baengnyeongdo #Yeonpyeongdo #남북관계 #군사도발 #Arirang_News #아리랑뉴스 📣 Facebook : 📣 Twitter : 📣 Homepage : 2024-01-05, 18:00 (KST)