North Korea Fires Artillery Shells Into Sea Near Disputed Border
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Version 0 of 1. SEOUL, South Korea — North Korea fired dozens of artillery shells into waters near the disputed western sea border with South Korea on Wednesday, the South Korean military said. Earlier Wednesday, North Korea told South Korea that it would conduct artillery drills this week near their sea border, where the two countries have fought naval skirmishes in recent years, the South said. On Wednesday night, North Korean naval guns and coastline artillery fired 130 shells, but none of them crossed the disputed maritime border, the South Korean military’s Office of Joint Chiefs of Staff said. The North Korean drill comes at a time when tensions have appeared to rise along the so-called Northern Limit Line, a western maritime border that South Korea has patrolled since the end of the 1950-53 Korean War. The North does not recognize the border and insists upon a demarcation line that lies south of the Northern Limit Line, encroaching deeply into waters controlled by the South. This month, North Korea threatened to fire upon any South Korean patrol boats crossing the border line it favored. On Tuesday, President Park Geun-hye of South Korea warned that her military would deal “decisively” with such provocations. On Wednesday, the North Korean military sent a telephone message telling its South Korean counterpart that it would conduct maritime artillery exercises in waters north of the Northern Limit Line between 3 p.m. Wednesday and midnight Friday, the Office of Joint Chiefs of Staff said in a statement. “This is an act of raising tensions,” the statement said, warning that if the North intruded into the South’s waters, “we will react strongly.” North Korea has occasionally conducted artillery drills in waters near the Northern Limit Line, and some of its shells have fallen south of the line. When that happens, South Korea retaliates by pounding North Korean waters with its own artillery shells. Armed standoffs along the western sea border are not unusual. The South has often accused the North of sending navy boats across the Northern Limit Line to highlight its claim to waters south of the line. When such incursions have taken place, patrol boats from both sides have sometimes exchanged warning shots. But they also resulted in bloody skirmishes between the rival navies in 1999, 2002 and 2009. And in 2010, the North was accused of torpedoing a South Korean Navy ship in the disputed waters and also attacked one of the South Korean islands there with artillery. Fifty South Koreans were killed in the two attacks. The North Korean notice on Wednesday came on the same day that the South Korean intelligence agency told lawmakers that Kim Jong-un, the North Korean leader, had recently executed Gen. Hyon Yong-chol, the head of his defense ministry, for disloyalty. General Hyon was the most senior North Korean official purged since the execution of an uncle of Mr. Kim’s, Jang Song-thaek, in 2013. |