SeongJoon Cho/Bloomberg/Getty Images
Metal spikes and barbed wire lie on a beach on the South Korean island of Yeonpyeong on June 26, 2020.
Seoul, South Korea CNN —
South Korea's military condemned its northern neighbor on Friday after Pyongyang fired artillery shells that fell into a maritime buffer zone that has long been a flashpoint between the two.
According to South Korea's Joint Chiefs of Staff (JCS), North Korea fired more than 200 shots between 9 a.m. and 11 a.m. off its western coast near the South Korean islands of Baengnyeong and Yeonpyeong.
The artillery fell north of the Northern Limit Line (NLL), a disputed de facto border established by the United Nations at the end of the Korean War in 1953.
The incoming shots did not harm civilians or military personnel, the JCS added, calling the incident a “provocative act that threatens peace and increases tensions on the Korean Peninsula.”
In response, the South Korean military held its own maritime firing exercise on Friday afternoon. The Defense Ministry said it was “in response to North Korea's provocation to fire artillery within the no-hostilities zone this morning.” There were “no unusual movements” by the North Korean military during the exercise, it said.
Ahead of the exercise, Yeonpyeong residents were ordered to evacuate to nearby shelters and “refrain from outdoor activities,” according to a notice on the government's website, and a resident told CNN that they received the same notice via text message would have received.
Photos from the island showed people gathering near designated shelters, some sitting inside and others milling about outside.
South Korea's Ministry of Defense
The South Korean military conducted its own maritime firing exercise on Friday afternoon in response to fire from North Korea
Yeonpyeong, a tiny island measuring just 3 square miles, is home to more than 2,100 people, according to the local office's website. Baengnyeong Island, roughly 18 square miles in size, has more than 4,900 residents.
It is not unprecedented for North Korea to fire shells into the maritime buffer zone, but such acts raise tensions.
The JCS said the hermit people had again fired artillery within the buffer zone after the cancellation of an inter-Korean military agreement last November. Several shots were also fired in the same area in late 2022.
01:31 – Source: CNN
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The military agreement was signed in 2018 as part of efforts with the United States to curb the threat of war on the Korean peninsula and expand the buffer zone between the two Koreas.
However, relations have deteriorated since then, with Seoul withdrawing from the agreement and both sides stepping up military exercises and weapons tests.
The South Korean military is now working with the US to track relevant movements and will “take measures consistent with North Korea's provocation,” the JCS said on Friday.
“It is not unusual for North Korea to fire artillery into the Western Sea during its winter exercises,” said Leif-Eric Easley, a professor at Ewha University in Seoul. “What is different this year is that the two Koreas recently withdrew from a military confidence-building agreement and Kim Jong Un has publicly distanced himself from reconciliation and unification with the South.”
On Sunday, North Korea's state news agency KCNA reported that the hermit state's leader, Kim Jong Un, said the state would no longer seek reconciliation and reunification with South Korea.
Kim said inter-Korean relations had become “a relationship between two hostile countries and two belligerents,” the KCNA report said. He reportedly added that if the US and South Korea attempt a military confrontation with the North, “the nuclear war deterrent will not shy away from taking serious action.”
The Northern Boundary Line runs 3 nautical miles from the North Korean coast and places five offshore islands under South Korean control.
North Korea has proposed a different line that would extend the demilitarized zone (DMZ) between the two nations roughly southwest to the Yellow Sea, rather than aligning with North Korea's coastline.
Yeonpyeong Island lies off the northwest coast of South Korea, right on the border with its northern neighbor – and has previously been the scene of hostilities between the two sides.
In November 2010, Pyongyang launched an attack on the island, killing two marines and two civilians. South Korea said 15 South Korean soldiers and three civilians were also injured in the attack. This triggered an island-wide evacuation and South Korean forces returned fire.
At the time, the North accused the South of provoking the attack through an artillery exercise in the waters near Yeonpyeong.
The shelling of the island also came six months after North Korea torpedoed a South Korean Navy corvette during joint naval exercises between the United States and South Korea, killing 46 of the 104 sailors on board. North Korea denied the sinking, and a Seoul-led multinational investigation team concluded it was caused by a torpedo fired by a North Korean small submarine.
The 2010 clash was one of the worst outbreaks of violence in years; At the time, the United Nations Secretary-General called North Korea's attack “one of the most serious incidents since the end of the Korean War.”
The war technically never ended; A ceasefire ended hostilities in 1953 – but there was never a peace treaty.
Although diplomats in Seoul and Washington discussed a deal to end the war in recent years, those efforts collapsed as tensions rose again on the Korean peninsula – particularly as Pyongyang stepped up its weapons development program and missile testing.