North Korea Fires Artilleries Towards South Korean Border Island: Report (image: representational @RAFIndia_)
South Korea’s military said North Korea has fired more than 200 rounds of artillery shells from its west coast towards Seoul’s Yeonpyeong island. South Korea condemned the act and called it “provocative”. The incident was reported to happen at January 5, Friday, between local time 9:00 to 11:00. However, the artilleries did not land in the South Korean land, but in the buffer zone between the two countries, as reported by BBC.
Korean Chief of Staff said no militaries or civilians were effected but the act “threatens peace on Korean peninsula and raises tension”. North Korea said the country was building up its military arsenal in preparation for the war, which according to it will “break out at any time”.
South Korea’s Defence Minister, Shin Won-sik in a statement said that, “North Korea resuming its artillery fire drills inside the non-hostility zone this morning is an act of provocation which threatens peace on the Korean Peninsula and raises tension”. He also added that Seoul’s military should be ready to “completely wipe out the enemy so that they wouldn’t dare another provocation”.
The new attack came months after Pyongyang suspended a military deal with Seoul, which was aimed at improving the relation between the countries. The deal started to slide down when North Korea claimed about successfully launching a spy satellite into space, which was in November. South Korea called to partly suspend the deal and said that it would resume with surveillance flights along the shared border.
This was followed by North Korea announcing to withdraw all measures that are “taken to prevent military conflict in all spheres including ground, sea and air”, and to deploy more powerful forces and “new-type military hardware”. According to the report, Pyongyang violated the pact several times in two years by launching missiles and artilleries into sea towards Seoul’s direction. Before the latest incident, North Korea last fired artillery shells into sea in December 2022, which was the ninth in that year alone.
With inputs from BBC
