SEOUL, South Korea –
North Korea fired artillery shells near its sea border with South Korea late Tuesday, a day after the South started annual army drills to raised deal with North Korean provocations.
South Korea’s Joint Chiefs of Staff stated in a press release early Wednesday that North Korea fired about 100 shells off its west coast and 150 rounds off its east coast. It stated the South Korean army broadcast messages a number of instances asking North Korea to cease the firing, however there have been no experiences of violence between the rivals.
South Korea’s army stated the shells did not land in South Korean territorial waters however fell inside maritime buffer zones the 2 Koreas established beneath a 2018 inter-Korean settlement geared toward decreasing front-line animosities.
It’s the second time North Korea has fired shells into the buffer zones since final Friday, when it shot lots of of shells there in its most important direct violation of the 2018 settlement.
South Korea’s army stated North Korea should halt provocations that undermine peace and stability on the Korean Peninsula. It added that it’s boosting its readiness and is carefully monitoring North Korean strikes in coordination with the United States.
In latest weeks, North Korea has carried out a spate of missile and artillery launches in what some specialists say is an try and increase its weapons arsenal and enhance its leverage in future negotiations with its rivals.
Last Friday, North Korea test-launched a short-range ballistic missile off its east coast alongside with the artillery launches. The missile launch was North Korea’s fifteenth because it resumed testing actions on Sept. 25.
North Korea stated final week that its latest missile exams had been simulations of nuclear strikes on South Korean and U.S. targets in response to their “dangerous” army workouts involving a U.S. plane service.
On Monday, South Korea’s army started annual 12-day discipline workouts to hone its operational capabilities in response to numerous forms of North Korean provocations. It stated an unspecified variety of U.S. troops will participate on this 12 months’s drills.