The day after an initial salvo from Pyongyang prompted Seoul's response with live-fire exercises in the region, North Korea fired more than sixty shells near the remote South Korean island on Saturday, January 6. From Yeonpyeong “between approximately 4 p.m. and…” 5 p.m. (between 8 a.m. and 9 a.m. Paris time), the South Korean Army General Staff said, warning Pyongyang against a continuation of these shootings.
On Friday, North Korea fired more than two hundred shells into the Yellow Sea near the South Korean islands of Yeonpyeong and Baengnyeong. According to the official KCNA agency, North Korea claimed that its shelling near the two islands was “a natural response and countermeasure” to military exercises conducted by Seoul.
The island of Yeonpyeong, which has around 2,000 inhabitants, is located 115 kilometers west of Seoul and around ten kilometers south of the North Korean coast. Also very close to North Korea, Baengnyeong with 4,900 inhabitants is 210 kilometers from the South Korean capital. According to local officials, residents of both islands have been directed to emergency shelters. Ferry services connecting the islands with the rest of South Korea have been suspended.
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“A threat to peace”
It was the sharpest escalation on the peninsula since the North Korean military bombed Yeonpyeong in 2010 in response to a South Korean live-fire exercise near the border. In this first North Korean attack on civilians since the Korean War (1950-1953), four people died – two soldiers and two civilians.
On both Saturday and Friday, North Korean shells hit a buffer zone created in 2018 as part of an agreement between the two neighbors to prevent military incidents on the border. But Seoul partially suspended the agreement last November to protest Pyongyang's launch of a spy satellite, and the North rejected the entire agreement shortly after.
The South Korean military said Saturday that North Korean artillery fire in the area “poses a threat to peace on the Korean Peninsula.” She issued “a stern warning” and called on North Korea to stop immediately, assuring that it would do so “in response.” [l’]The army will take appropriate measures to protect the country.”
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