The South Korean military condemned its North Korean neighbor this Friday (5), after Pyongyang fired artillery shots that fell within a maritime buffer zone – a strip that separates the two enemy geographic regions – which has long been It is a point of conflict between the two countries.
North Korea fired more than 200 rounds in two hours off the west coast near South Korea's Baengnyeong and Yeonpyeong islands, according to South Korea's Joint Chiefs of Staff (JCS).
The artillery fell north of the Northern Limit Line (NLL), a disputed de facto border established by the UN at the end of the Korean War in 1953.
The munitions did not cause harm to civilians or military personnel, the JCS added, calling the incident a “provocative act that threatens peace and increases tension on the Korean Peninsula.”
In response, South Korea's military said it would hold its own maritime firing exercise on Friday afternoon, with residents of Yeonpyeong ordered to evacuate to nearby shelters during that time and “refrain from engaging in outdoor activities.” ,” according to a message on the government website, and a local resident who told CNN who received the same message by text.
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Photos from the island showed people gathered near designated shelters, some sitting inside and others loitering outside.
Yeonpyeong, a small island measuring just 5 square kilometers, is home to more than 2,100 people, according to the local office's website. Baengnyeong Island, about 18 square miles, has more than 4,900 residents.
It is not unprecedented for North Korea to drop bombs in the maritime buffer zone, but such acts increase tensions.
North Korea has resumed artillery firing inside the buffer zone after canceling an inter-Korean military agreement last November, the JCS said. Several shots were also fired in the same area in late 2021.
The military agreement was signed in 2018 as part of efforts with the United States to contain the threat of war on the Korean Peninsula and expand the buffer zone between the two Koreas.
But relations have deteriorated since then, with Seoul backtracking on the deal and both sides stepping up military exercises and weapons tests.
The South Korean military is now working with the US to track related movements and will take “actions corresponding to North Korea's provocation,” the JCS said on Friday.
“It is not uncommon for North Korea to fire artillery into the West Sea during its winter exercises,” said Leif-Eric Easley, a professor at Ewha University in Seoul.
“The difference this year is that the two Koreas recently backed away from a confidence-building military agreement and Kim Jong Un publicly rejected reconciliation and unification with the South.”
On Sunday, North Korean state news agency KCNA reported that North Korean leader Kim Jong Un said the state will no longer seek reconciliation and reunification with South Korea.
Kim said inter-Korean relations have become “a relationship between two hostile countries and two warring belligerents,” according to the KCNA report. He reportedly added that if the US and South Korea attempt a military confrontation with the North, their “nuclear war deterrent will not hesitate to take serious action.”
Critical point maritime boundary
The Northern Limit Line runs 3 nautical miles (about 5.5 km) from the North Korean coast and puts five offshore islands under South Korean control.
North Korea has proposed a different line that would roughly extend the demilitarized zone (DMZ) between the two nations southwest to the Yellow Sea, rather than hugging North Korea's coast.
Yeonpyeong Island is on the northwest coast of South Korea, close to the border with its northern neighbor – and has been the site of hostilities between the two sides.
In November 2010, Pyongyang launched an attack on the island, killing two marines and two civilians. The attack also injured 15 South Korean soldiers and three civilians, South Korea said. It prompted an island-wide evacuation and South Korean forces returned fire.
The North blamed the South at the time for provoking this attack by carrying out an artillery exercise in the waters near Yeonpyeong.
The shelling on the island also came half a year after North Korea torpedoed a South Korean Navy corvette, killing 46 of the 104 sailors on board, during joint U.S.-South Korean naval exercises.
North Korea denied the sinking, which a multinational investigation team led by Seoul concluded was caused by a torpedo fired by a North Korean midget submarine.
The 2010 clash was one of the worst outbreaks of violence in years; at the time, the secretary-general of the United Nations called the North Korean attack “one of the most serious incidents since the end of the Korean War.”
The war technically never ended; an armistice ended hostilities in 1953 – but there was never a peace treaty.
Although diplomats in Seoul and Washington have in recent years discussed a deal to end the war, those efforts have failed as tensions on the Korean Peninsula have risen again — especially with Pyongyang stepping up its weapons development and missile testing program.
Source: CNN Brasil
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