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North Korea fired artillery rounds near its disputed sea boundary with South Korea in violation of a fragile 2018 military agreement, prompting the South to plan similar drills.
ADVERTISEMENTSouth Korea said Friday that North Korea had conducted artillery drills along the tense sea boundary in violation of a 2018 military agreement.
North Korea’s front-line maritime firing exercise was the first of its kind in about a year.
South Korea’s Joint Chiefs of Staff said Pyongyang fired 200 rounds in the waters north of their disputed western sea boundary on Friday, branding the drills a provocation, although no damage was said to have been caused.
Lee Sung Joon added that South Korea’s military will take an unspecified step in response to the North’s artillery firing while closely monitoring North Korean moves in close coordination with the United States.
Residents of South Korea’s frontline island of Yeonpyeong say the South Korean military has asked them to evacuate because it plans to launch firing drills later Friday.
The 2018 agreement requires the two Koreas to halt live-fire exercises and aerial surveillance in no-fly and buffer zones that they established along their border.
The incident came just days after South Korea and the United States held the year’s first joint live-fire drills in a bid to bolster its combat readiness amid mounting tensions in the Korean Peninsula.
The US also accused North Korea on Friday of sending missiles to Russia for Moscow to use in its war in Ukraine. So far, North Korea has denied that it sends weapons to Russia.
Experts predict North Korea will likely intensify a run of weapons tests in the coming months, escalating tensions on the Korean Peninsula ahead of the South’s parliamentary elections in April and the US presidential election in November.
Pyongyang has warned Seoul of continuing what it sees as self-destructive acts into 2024, adding that the risk of clashes is the highest this year.
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