North Korea fired more than 200 artillery rounds into the Yellow Sea near two South Korean islands at the countries’ maritime border, South Korea’s Joint Chiefs of Staff said Friday, Jan. 5, 2024. (Pixabay)
SUWON, South Korea — North Korea fired more than 200 artillery rounds into the Yellow Sea near two South Korean islands at the countries’ maritime border, South Korea’s Joint Chiefs of Staff said Friday.
Two barrages occurred around 9 a.m. and 11 a.m. Friday near the Yeonpyeong and Baengnyeong Islands, the Joint Chiefs said in a statement. No damage or injuries were reported.
The rounds landed north of the Northern Limit Line, the unofficial maritime border separating the two countries’ territories, the Joint Chiefs said.
The Joint Chiefs said it warned North Korea that it is “solely responsible for this escalating crisis” and urged the communist regime “to stop immediately.”
South Korean marines stationed near the islands conducted shooting exercises in response to the North’s artillery, the Ministry of National Defense said in a news release Friday.
Loudspeakers advised Yeonpyeong residents to seek shelter between noon and 2:30 p.m. due to a South Korean military unit training in the area, a Yeonpyeong township official told Stars and Stripes by phone Friday.
South Korean officials regularly speak to the media on a customary condition of anonymity.
North Korea last fired artillery rounds toward the Northern Limit Line in December 2022. The regime shelled Yeonpyeong Island 12 years earlier, killing two South Korean marines and two civilians.
Following the 2018 diplomatic summits between North Korean leader Kim Jong Un and then-President Moon Jae-in, the two leaders on Sept. 19 signed an agreement to prevent “accidental military clashes” in the Yellow Sea.
Seoul partially suspended that agreement in November after Pyongyang successfully placed a reconnaissance satellite into orbit on Nov. 21.
North Korea scrapped the accord entirely on Nov. 23, saying it was no longer bound to the agreement and that it would redeploy armed troops at outposts near the Demilitarized Zone, according to a state-run Korean Central News Agency report.
Friday’s artillery fire comes two days after South Korea’s navy conducted its first maritime gunnery exercise of the year. Over a dozen South Korean warships sailed in waters off the country’s east, west and southern borders to perform anti-ship live-fire drills, antisubmarine exercises and tactical maneuvers, South Korea’s navy said in a news release Wednesday.
Stars and Stripes reporter Yoo Kyong Chang contributed to this report.
