Koreas exchange artillery fire across border
Print Edition
South Korea fired dozens of shells yesterday at rival North Korea after North Korea lobbed several rounds across the world’s most heavily armed border and threatened to take further action unless Seoul ends its loudspeaker broadcasts.
North Korea was backing up an earlier threat to attack South Korean border loudspeakers that, after a lull of 11 years, have started broadcasting anti-Pyongyang propaganda.
The broadcasts began after South Korea accused North Korea of planting land mines that maimed two South Korean soldiers earlier this month.
North Korea first fired a single round believed to be from an anti-aircraft gun, which landed at a South Korean border town yesterday afternoon. About 20 minutes later, several more artillery shells fell on the southern side of the Demilitarized Zone dividing the two Koreas.
South Korea responded with dozens of 155-milimeter artillery rounds, according to South Korean defense officials.
There were no reports of casualties, and North Korea didn’t respond militarily to South Korea’s artillery barrage. But North Korea’s army later warned in a message that it will take further military action within 48 hours if South Korea doesn’t pull down the loudspeakers, according to South Korea’s Defense Ministry.
South Korea raised its military readiness to its highest level.
Joint Chiefs of Staff spokesman Jeon Ha-kyu told a news conference that South Korea is ready to repel any additional provocation. Defense officials said South Korea will continue loudspeaker broadcasts despite North Korean threats.
North Korea, which has also restarted its own propaganda broadcasts, is sensitive to any criticism of the government run by leader Kim Jong Un.
The artillery exchange also comes during another point of tensions between the Koreas: annual US-South Korean military drills that North Korea calls an invasion rehearsal. Seoul and Washington say the drills are defensive in nature.
South Korean President Park Geun-hye convened an emergency National Security Council meeting and ordered South Korea’s military to “resolutely” deal with any provocation by North Korea.
About 80 residents in the South Korean town where the shell fell, Yeoncheon, were evacuated to underground bunkers, and authorities urged other residents to evacuate, a Yeoncheon official said.
In the nearby border city of Paju, residents were asked to stay home. On Ganghwa Island, residents in villages near a site where South Korea operates one of its loudspeakers were also evacuated, according to island officials.
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