North Korea fired artillery rounds again today near the maritime border with the South for the third consecutive day, according to a South Korean military source reported to the local Yonhap agency.
Pyongyang fired the shots towards waters north of the South Korean island of Yeonpyeong, according to the aforementioned source, who also explained that the projectiles did not cross the maritime boundary between the two countries.
The live-fire exercises began at 4:00 p.m. local time today (7:00 GMT), and although no damage or incidents related to them have been reported, local authorities have recommended residents of this and other islands near the divide to Be careful if you practice outdoor activities.
The same military source indicated that South Korean troops maintain their preparedness position in the face of North Korean maneuvers, and that at the moment there are no plans to respond with similar exercises.
Last Friday, the North fired more than 200 artillery rounds into the same area, prompting South Korean authorities to evacuate two islands and respond with live-fire drills.
Pyongyang’s continued live-fire maneuvers along the maritime divide “are a threat to peace on the Korean Peninsula and increase tensions,” according to what the South Korean General Staff (JCS) said the day before after the new North Korean maneuvers that day. .
The South Korean Army also urged the North to “immediately stop” these exercises and threatened to “take action” if it continued with its provocations or put South Korean citizens at risk.
This new episode highlights the panorama of greater instability that is opening up in the region after the northern regime announced in November that it was suspending compliance with a 2018 bilateral military agreement that, among other things, prohibited live-fire exercises.
Faced with the North’s live-fire maneuvers on Friday, the authorities of Yeonpyeong (115 kilometers west of Seoul and just 10 kilometers from the North Korean coast) and Baengnyeong (the westernmost island of South Korea and located about 20 kilometers from the coast) northern) issued, following a military order, two notices for its inhabitants to move to emergency shelters due to the North Korean artillery maneuvers.
Both islands are located in front of the so-called Northern Limit Line (NLL), which serves as a disputed maritime border between the two Koreas in the Yellow Sea (called the West Sea by both Pyongyang and Seoul), and which has been the scene of numerous clashes. between neighboring countries that in the last 25 years have left around a hundred dead on both sides, mostly military.
