Sign in. It’s quick, free and it’s up to you.
An account is an optional way to support the work we do. Find out more.
A South Korean marine LVT-7 landing craft sail to shores through a smoke screen during the U.S.-South Korea joint landing exercises called Ssangyong, part of the Foal Eagle military exercises, in Pohang, South Korea. AP Photo/Ahn Young-joon
Bad Neighbours
Tensions rise after North Korea fires across maritime border with South Korea
South Korea says that it will make a “resolute retaliation” to the firing of over 200 rounds into their waters.
NORTH KOREA FIRED around 500 shells in a live exercise, around 100 of which landed on the South Korean side of the disputed maritime border, Seoul’s Defence Ministry said.
“The North fired some 500 shots… and some 100 of them landed in waters south of the border,” the Defence Ministry spokesman Kim Min-Seok told reporters.
The three-hour long North Korean drill triggered an exchange of fire as South Korea responded with volleys of shells into North Korean waters.
Kim said the exercise was a “premeditated provocation and is an attempt to test our military’s determination” to protect the maritime boundary.
“If the North takes issue with our legitimate returning of fire and uses it to make yet another provocation towards our sea and islands, we will make a resolute retaliation,” he added.
have your say