A pact concluded in 2018 to calm the military situation between Seoul and Pyongyang is now at risk of completely failing. At the same time, rumors are circulating that ruler Kim Jong-un wants to groom his ten-year-old daughter, Kim Ju-ae, as his successor.
200 artillery strikes on the Korean west coast – this smacks of armed conflict. No one has been injured yet; North Korean missiles fell into the Yellow Sea, north of the maritime border line, the General Staff in Seoul reported. People on the islands of Yeonpyeong and Baengnyeong, close to the border, were immediately asked to enter bunkers as a preventative measure. Local authorities were informed by the General Staff that the South Korean Navy would conduct an exercise there “soon”.
South Korean news agency Yonhap reports that South Korean and US militaries also began an artillery exercise near the border on Thursday. The explosive aspect of the latest escalation: In fact, there has been an agreement since 2018 that obliges both sides to halt exercises and even aerial surveillance of borders within a defined maritime buffer zone. The already fragile agreement was initially unilaterally terminated by Seoul following the launch of a North Korean spy satellite last November and is now at risk of being completely nullified by North Korean artillery fire.
View of Yeonpyeong Island, 12 kilometers south of the North Korean coast. APA/AFP/Ed Jones