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North and South Korea Exchange Fire Across Disputed Sea Border North and South Korea Exchange Fire Across Disputed Sea Border
(about 2 hours later)
SEOUL, South Korea — North Korea conducted extensive live-fire military drills off its southern coast on Monday, some of its artillery shells falling south of the disputed sea border with South Korea, in a military provocation that came a day after the North threatened to conduct more nuclear tests. SEOUL, South Korea — North Korea and South Korea fired hundreds of artillery shells across their disputed western sea border on Monday, escalating military tensions a day after the North threatened to conduct more nuclear tests.
Marines on South Korean border islands fired back, launching artillery shells north of the disputed sea border, the South Korean military said. Residents of the islands, including hundreds of schoolchildren, hurried into bomb shelters. Ferry service to the islands was interrupted and fishing boats nearby were called to port, according to military officials and residents reached by telephone. South Korean officials said the shells from both sides fell harmlessly into waters from which naval and fishing boats had stayed clear. But the exchange of fire marked the most serious episode along the western sea border since an artillery duel there in 2010.
South Korean officials said on Monday that the shells from both sides appeared to have fallen harmlessly into waters from which naval and fishing boats have stayed clear. Earlier on Monday, North Korea had told the South that it would conduct live-fire military drills in seven zones along the maritime border, which hugs the southern coast of North Korea. Then its artillery pieces and multiple-rocket launchers rolled out of shoreline tunnels and fired 500 shells and projectiles between 12:15 p.m. and 2:30 p.m.
Such exchanges of artillery in the disputed waters are not unprecedented, but rising military tensions there indicate that after months of a relative lull, hostilities between the two Koreas have begun ratcheting up again. About 100 of them flew across the disputed sea border and fell into South Korean-controlled waters near Baengnyeong Island, said Kim Min-seok, the spokesman for the South Korean Ministry of National Defense. Baengnyeong, a South Korean marine garrison, lies only 10 miles from the southwestern tip of North Korea.
Citing the joint military exercises Washington and Seoul started in late February as a justification, North Korea has test-fired a series of rockets and short- and midrange ballistic missiles in recent weeks. In retaliation, South Korean marines fired K-9 self-propelled artillery pieces, pounding North Korean waters north of the disputed sea border with 300 shells, Mr. Kim said.
The tests prompted the United Nations Security Council to warn last week of more censure against the country, which is already under heavy sanctions. With guns from both sides rumbling, residents of the five South Korean border islands, including hundreds of children, hurried into bomb shelters. South Korea suspended ferry services to the islands and ordered fishing boats operating near the border waters to return to port.
On Sunday, Pyongyang lashed out by threatening “a new form of nuclear test” and warning that its Korean People’s Army would conduct drills aimed at improving its ability to attack mid- and long-range targets with “more diversified nuclear deterrence” and “with a variety of striking power.” Earlier Monday, it declared seven live-fire zones along the disputed sea border hugging the southern coast of North Korea and warned South Korean fishing boats out of the areas. “This is a premeditated provocation to test our will to defend the maritime border, and if the North provokes again using our response today as an excuse, we will act decisively,” Mr. Kim said. “We have increased our vigilance along the western frontier islands and boosted weapons’ readiness there.”
The western waters are the most dangerous flash points along the border between North and South Korea. A string of South Korean islands, guarded by marines and heavy artillery, lie just south of the maritime border and within the range of massive arrays of North Korean coastal guns and rocket launchers. The waters were the scene of several naval skirmishes in recent years and an artillery duel in 2010. Artillery exchanges in the disputed waters are not unprecedented, but rising military tensions there indicated that after months of relative calm, hostilities between the two Koreas have begun ratcheting up again. They raised fears that the often-repeated cycle of peace overtures followed by military provocations was resuming on the Korean Peninsula.
The firing zones North Korea had earlier announced lie north of the “northern limit line,” or N.L.L., the sea border South Korea tried to defend, although North Korea does not recognize it. “Pyongyang prefers to strike when it sees Washington as weak or distracted, beset by bigger problems,” Lee Sung-yoon, a North Korea expert at the Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy at Tufts University, said, referring to the North’s capital.
“We told the North that we will respond powerfully if any of its firing violates the N.L.L.,” the South Korean military had said in a statement earlier Monday. President Obama “is seen as wavering on Russia and Syria,” he said. “It would be a good time to raise the stakes once more with a nuclear or long-range missile test, as Pyongyang has intimated in recent days.”
In 2010, North Korea fired hundreds of artillery rounds into disputed waters, some of them falling south of the N.L.L. Later that year, it shelled one of the South Korean border islands, killing four people and prompting the South to retaliate with its own artillery barrage against North Korean gun positions. Citing the joint military exercises Washington and Seoul started in late February as a justification, North Korea has test-fired a series of rockets and short- and midrange ballistic missiles in recent weeks. The tests prompted the United Nations Security Council to warn last week of new action against the country, which is already under heavy sanctions.
There was no sign of an imminent nuclear test from North Korea, but the South Korean military was operating an emergency response system to promptly handle North Korean provocations, the South Korean Ministry of National Defense said on Monday. The impoverished Communist government has conducted three underground nuclear tests since 2006. On Sunday, Pyongyang threatened “a new form of nuclear test” and warned that its military would conduct drills aimed at improving its ability to attack mid- and long-range targets with “more diversified nuclear deterrence” and “with a variety of striking power.”
Col. Wi Yong-seob, deputy spokesman for the South Korean Defense Ministry, said on Monday that a new nuclear test from the North would invite strong international condemnation. He also called the North’s live-fire drills “hostilities intended to threaten us and heighten a sense of crisis on the Korean Peninsula.” The two parties in the Korean War never agreed on a western sea border when the three-year conflict ended in a cease-fire in 1953. South Korea tries to defend the so-called northern limit line, which was unilaterally declared by the United Nations. North Korea does not recognize it, claiming another demarcation line farther south.
An editorial Monday in the Rodong Sinmun, the official mouthpiece of the North’s ruling Workers’ Party, urged the country not to succumb to “American nuclear blackmail” and to keep strengthening its nuclear arsenal. The editorial was published to mark the anniversary of a 2013 party meeting at which the simultaneous development of nuclear weapons and the economy was adopted as North Korea’s top policy goal. Today, the western waters are the most dangerous flash points along the border between North and South Korea. A string of South Korean islands, guarded by marines and heavy artillery, lie just south of the maritime border and within range of North Korean coastal guns and rocket launchers.
North Korea’s latest hostilities come as the country is preparing for major anniversaries, like the April 15 birthday of Kim Il-sung, North Korea’s founder and the late grandfather of its current leader, Kim Jong-un, and the April 25 anniversary of the founding of the North Korean military. The North is also scheduled to convene its newly elected rubber-stamp Parliament on April 9. The waters were the scene of several naval skirmishes in recent years. In 2010, North Korea fired hundreds of artillery rounds into disputed waters, some of them falling south of the northern limit line. Later that year, it shelled one of the South Korean border islands, killing four people and prompting the South to retaliate with its own barrage against North Korean gun positions.
The government traditionally uses such important national events to increase domestic solidarity, sometimes with the aid of missile and nuclear tests and other provocations against external enemies. North Korea’s latest hostilities came as the country was preparing for major anniversaries, like the April 15 birthday of Kim Il-sung, the deceased grandfather of the current leader, Kim Jong-un, and the April 25 anniversary of the North Korean military. The North was also scheduled to convene its recently elected rubber-stamp Parliament on April 9.
Kim Jong-un, who inherited power following the death of his father, Kim Jong-il, in 2011, has so far “turned out to be more of a hard-liner and far more bellicose in external relations than his father,” said Cheong Seong-chang, a North Korea expert at the Sejong Institute of South Korea. The regime traditionally uses such events to bolster internal solidarity, sometimes with the aid of missile and nuclear tests and other provocations.
Kim Jong-un, who came to power after the death of his father, Kim Jong-il, in 2011, has so far “turned out to be more of a hard-liner and far more bellicose in external relations than his father,” said Cheong Seong-chang, a North Korea expert at Sejong Institute of South Korea.
On Monday, an editorial in the Rodong Sinmun, the official organ of the ruling Workers’ Party in North Korea, urged the country not to succumb to “American nuclear blackmail” but to continue strengthening its nuclear arsenal. The daily published the editorial to mark the first anniversary of a 2013 party meeting in which North Korea adopted the “simultaneous” development of nuclear weapons and the economy as the country’s top policy goal.
There was no sign of an imminent nuclear test from North Korea, but the South Korean military was operating an emergency response system to promptly handle North Korean provocations, the South Korean defense ministry said.
North Korea has conducted three underground nuclear tests since 2006.