South Korea returned artillery fire after North Korea lobbed shells over the two countries’ western sea border, pushing tensions to their highest in months.
South Korea’s shells landed in North Korean waters, the South’s Defense Ministry said. North Korea earlier today notified Seoul of planned live-fire drills, the South’s Defense Ministry spokesman Wi Yong Seob said in a briefing. Residents on the South Korean islands of Baengnyeong and Yeonpyeong were moved to shelters.
The exchange of fire comes after North Korea yesterday said it may conduct a “new form” of nuclear test, and after South Korea President Park Geun Hye in a speech last week in Germany proposed building closer links with the North to spur reunification. North Korea fired artillery shells at Yeonpyeong in November 2010, killing two marines and prompting South Korea to return fire and mobilize fighter jets.
“North Korea is refusing to be dragged into plans led by the South, and is indirectly saying that Park’s plan won’t be easy to implement,” Kim Yong Hyun, a professor of North Korean studies at Dongguk University, said by phone. “Firing toward the border and creating a crisis situation isn’t an unusual move, it has been part of their brinkmanship policy.”
Countermeasures against North Korea’s drills have been reported to President Park, and the National Security Council will meet after the current situation is taken care of, Yonhap News said, citing an unidentified government security official.
Moving to Shelter
North Korea began its drills at about 12:15 p.m. and some artillery shells landed in South Korean waters, the South’s Defense Ministry said in an e-mailed statement. South Korea returned fire into North Korean waters “in line with proper counter-measures,” and the military will provide further details after the situation ends, the ministry said.
At least 3,000 residents of Baengnyeong island have moved to shelters, with more still arriving, according to the island’s civil defense corps. Yonhap reported an evacuation is also taking place on Yeonpyeong.
North Korea’s live-fire drills are a hostile act toward the South and escalate tensions along the western sea border, Defense Ministry spokesman Wi said earlier today. The military is ready for any possible provocation, Wi said.
North Korea has fired at least 86 rockets since Feb. 27 prior to today’s drills, including ballistic missiles banned under United Nations resolutions. The country’s foreign ministry defended them as part of drills to respond to annual U.S.-South Korean military exercises, according to a statement yesterday published by the official Korean Central News Agency.
‘Provocation’
Kim Jong Un’s regime “is fully ready for next-stage steps which the enemy can hardly imagine in case the U.S. considers them as a ‘provocation,’” the foreign ministry said in the statement. “It would not rule out a new form of nuclear test for bolstering up its nuclear deterrence.”
South Korea sees no sign of an imminent nuclear test or long-range missile firing, Unification Ministry spokesman Kim Eui Do said in a briefing today. North Korea has conducted three atomic tests, the latest in February last year.
North Korea’s warning came even as Park pushes for closer ties. Last month the two nations held the first reunions in more than three years of families separated by the Korean War. The North rejected the South’s offer this month to make family reunions a regular event.
Fishing Boat
South Korea last week repatriated a North Korea fishing boat that drifted across the disputed western sea border with engine trouble, South Korean Joint Chiefs of Staff spokesman Eom Hyo Sik said by phone on March 28.
North Korea criticized South Korea for “capturing” the boat, threatening revenge, KCNA reported today, citing a military official.
The 2010 shelling of Yeonpyeong took place seven months after the torpedoing of South Korea’s Cheonan warship, killing 46 sailors. An international panel blamed the sinking on North Korea, a charge it has denied.
“Both sides need to make efforts not to escalate the situation as a small conflict can develop into serious one,” Yang Moo Jin, a professor at the University of North Korean Studies in Seoul, said by phone today. “North Korea may be using the drills to highlight the instability of the western sea border, and to press the South toward negotiations.”
To contact the reporters on this story: Cynthia Kim in Seoul at ckim170@bloomberg.net; Shinhye Kang in Seoul at skang24@bloomberg.net
To contact the editors responsible for this story: Rosalind Mathieson at rmathieson3@bloomberg.net; Stuart Biggs at sbiggs3@bloomberg.net Andrew Davis
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