NK fires shells near Sokor island
North Korea’s military fires 200 rounds near the northern part of Baengnyeong Island.
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North Korea’s military fires 200 rounds near the northern part of Baengnyeong Island.
North Korea fired more than 200 artillery shells near two South Korean islands on Friday, prompting the evacuation of residents there.
The shelling was one of the most serious military escalations between the two Koreas since the North fired a barrage of shells at one of the islands in 2010.
"The North Korean military conducted over 200 rounds of firing today from around 9 a.m. to 11 a.m. in the areas of Jangsan-got in the northern part of Baengnyeong Island and the northern areas… of Yeonpyeong Island," a defense ministry official said at a briefing.
"We sternly warn that North Korea bears full responsibility for this escalating crisis and strongly urge them to immediately cease these actions," it added.
"Our military closely tracks and monitors the situation in close coordination with the United States, and will take appropriate measures in response to North Korea's provocations."
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"We are making the evacuation announcements at the moment," a local district official at Baengnyeong island told Agence France-Presse, adding that he had been told the South Korean military would conduct a naval drill shortly.
Hours after the reported barrage, South Korean marines on the border island of Yeonpyeong conducted live-fire artillery drills, Yonhap News Agency reported.
The troops held "live-fire artillery drills with K9 self-propelled howitzers," Yonhap said, the first such drills in the area since both countries dropped a military accord in November.
China called Friday for "restraint" from all sides after Seoul said North Korea had fired an artillery barrage near two South Korean islands.
Relations between the two Koreas are at one of their lowest points in decades, after Kim enshrined the country's status as a nuclear power into the constitution while test-firing several advanced inter-continental ballistic missiles.
At Pyongyang's key year-end policy meetings, Kim had warned of a nuclear attack on the South and called for a build-up of the country's military arsenal ahead of armed conflict that he warned could "break out any time."
Kim accused the US of posing "various forms of military threat" and ordered his armed forces to maintain the "overwhelming war response capability", according to KCNA's account of the meeting that ended on Saturday.
Meanwhile, Kim called for expanded production of missile launchers in preparation for a "military showdown" with South Korea and the US, state media said Friday.
Kim told workers of a factory that produces transport erector launchers that increasing TEL production capacity was important "given the prevailing grave situation that requires the country to be more firmly prepared for a military showdown with the enemy," KCNA said.
