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- North Korea fired over 200 artillery shells toward a South Korean island.
- Local media said South Korea later fired 400 rounds in a live-fire drill, AP reported.
- South Korea called the incident a “provocative act,” North Korea says it was a “natural response.”
North Korea launched over 200 rounds of artillery shells off its west coast toward South Korea’s Yeonpyeong island between 09:00 to 11:00 local time, said Seoul’s military, the BBC reports.
South Korea responded by ordering civilians on the island to seek shelter and conducting live-fire drills as a countermeasure.
Yeonpyeong island, home to a military base and 2,000 people, is a few miles from the North Korean coast. It was a conflict flash point in 2010 when a North Korean artillery barrage killed two soldiers and two civilians.
South Korea retaliated by ordering marines on two border islands to fire artillery shells south of the sea boundary later on Friday, its Defense Ministry said. Local media said South Korea fired 400 rounds, AP reported.
Despite South Korea condemning the action as a “provocative act,” North Korea denied that its barrage posed any threat. They did not breach South Korean territory, and all projectiles landed in the buffer zone between the two countries, it said.
South Korea’s Joint Chiefs of Staff said that the artillery fire caused “no damage to our people or military” but stressed that such actions “threaten peace on the Korean peninsula and raise tensions,” the BBC reported.
Authorities on nearby islands, Baengnyeong and Daecheong, also directed civilians to seek shelter in response to the escalating situation, the BBC reported.
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Rose Rambles... 