North Korea fires artillery shells towards South’s border island

According to Seoul’s defense, the North Korea has fired more than 200 artillery rounds at Yeonpyeong Island off its east coast.

Korea, South soon issued an removal notice to the island’s citizens, though they did not say whether it was connected.

The South has criticized the action, describing it as a “provocative act.”

Four people were killed when the North Korean ordnance repeatedly fired on Yeonpyeong Island in 2010.

The artillery shells that were fired on Friday between 9:00 and 11:00 local time ( 00: 00 to 2:00 GMT ) all landed in the buffer zone between the two nations, so they did not enter Korea, Southn territory.

The event” caused no damage to our people or defense,” according to Korea, South’s Joint Chiefs of Staff, but it also” threatened harmony on the Korean peninsula and raises conflicts.”

The most recent tragedy occurred weeks after the North Korea completely halted a military agreement with the South intended to ease conflicts.

Pyongyang then declared that it would abandon all actions “taken to stop military conflict in all spheres including floor, sea, and air” and build “more potent military forces and new-type military hardware” in the boundary region.

However, over the previous two years, the North Korea had repeatedly broken the agreement by firing artillery rounds and missiles into the South’s water. With nine like situations occurring in that year only, the North Korea last fired artillery shell into the water in December 2022.

Yeonpyeong island is located 3 km ( 2 miles ) from the disputed maritime border in the Yellow Sea and 12 km from the North Korea’s coast. It is home to a military base and has about 2,000 residents who are civilians.

Over the years, it has been the scene of inter-Korean marine battles.