North Korea began live-fire artillery maneuvers near its maritime border with the South on Friday in violation of a 2018 agreement, prompting Seoul to prepare to conduct similar exercises.
South Korea’s Joint Chiefs of Staff announced that North Korea fired 200 rounds into waters north of the maritime border, west of the peninsula, near the islands of Yeonpyeong and Paengnyeong, and assured a response, although it did not reveal further details.
Residents on Yeonpyeong Island, near the border, said the South Korean military had asked them to leave their homes as a “preventative measure” as it plans to begin naval gunfire exercises later this Friday.
Residents of Baengnyeong were also asked to leave their homes, authorities on the island, located about 100 kilometers from Yeonpyeong, told news agency France-Presse (AFP) on Friday.
“We are making evacuation announcements right now,” Baengnyong’s spokesman told AFP, adding that the South Korean military had informed him that it would soon hold naval exercises.
In a statement, South Korea’s Defense Ministry called North Korea’s maneuvers “an act of provocation that threatens peace on the peninsula” and called on Pyongyang to “immediately cease these actions.”
The maritime border between the two Koreas has been the scene of several naval battles since 1999. In 2010, the Pyongyang regime fired 170 artillery rounds on Yeonpyeong Island, killing four people, including two civilians.
In a military agreement reached in 2018, Pyongyang and Seoul promised not to conduct live-fire exercises or aerial surveillance activities in no-fly zones and buffer zones set up along their border.
However, on November 22, South Korea announced a partial suspension of the agreement after the North launched its first military spy satellite into orbit. A day later, Pyongyang responded by suspending the agreement entirely.
North Korean leader Kim Jong Un has called for increased production of missile launchers, North Korea’s state news agency KCNA reported on Friday.
The Pyongyang regime’s exercises began a day after the South Korean and US armies began live-fire maneuvers near the land border with North Korea that will end this Friday.
North Korean media criticized the joint maneuvers, with the official KCNA news agency calling the exercises and some live-fire maneuvers acts of self-destruction.
Author: Lusa
Source: CM Jornal
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