Key Takeaways
- North Korea fired over 200 artillery shells off its west coast near South Korean islands, sparking concerns of a military provocation.
- The fired shells landed into the maritime buffer zone north of the Northern Limit Line, the de facto maritime border between North and South Korea.
- There were no casualties or damage to South Korean civilians or military personnel as a result of the incident.
Seoul: The North Korean military fired some 200 artillery shells into waters off its western coast in the vicinity of South Korean islands of Baengnyongdo and Yeonpyeong on Friday morning, South Korean news agency Yonhap reported, citing the country’s Joint Chiefs of Staff (JCC).
Earlier in the day, Seoul ordered civilians of Yeonpyeong Island bordering North Korea in the north to evacuate to shelters amid “apparent signs of a military provocation” by Pyongyang.
The report cited the JCC as saying that Pyongyang’s military fired the shells from 9:00 a.m. local time (00:00 GMT) to 11 a.m. local time (02:00 GMT) from Jangsan Cape, north of South Korea’s northernmost island of Baengnyeong, and Deungsan Cape, north of the South’s western border island of Yeonpyeong.
The fired shells landed into the maritime buffer zone north of the Northern Limit Line, the de facto maritime border between the countries, which was set under the inter-Korean military accord signed in 2018 to reduce border tensions. There were no casualties or damage to South Korean civilians or military personnel as a result of the incident, the report said.
