North Korea Fires Artillery Shells Into Buffer Zone

North Korea fired artillery shells into the maritime buffer zone on Monday, the Seoul military said. At 14: 59 (0559 GMT), about 130 shells were fired simultaneously from two different locations on North Korea’s east and west coasts, the South’s Joint Chiefs of Staff said in a statement.

The South Korean military said the barrage attack was a “clear violation” of the 2018 inter-Korean agreement that set up a buffer zone to ease tensions.

It is said that no shells crossed the Northern Border Line, the de facto maritime border between the two countries.

The military said it had issued “some warnings” about the barrage, but did not provide further details.

“Our military has stepped up its emergency preparedness and is tracking and monitoring relevant developments under close cooperation between South Korea and the United States,” it added.

However, North Korea claimed that the artillery fire was a “tit back warning” against multiple artillery shelling from South Korea.

“Dozens of projectiles believed to be multi-rocket launcher rounds” were fired from the south on Monday, a spokesman for the North Korean People’s Army General Staff said in a statement.

The North Korean military “constantly considers provocations by the enemy and responds with decisive and overwhelming military action,” added a statement issued by the state-run Korean Central News Agency. No, but local reports said South Korean and U.S. forces were conducting target practice in the area.

Buffer Zones
During their 2018 summit in Pyongyang, former South Korean President Moon Jae-in and North Korean leader Kim Jong Un agreed to establish buffer zones along land and sea borders to ease tensions. Agreed.

But since talks broke down in 2019, Kim Jong-un has doubled down on his banned weapons program, allowing him to test South Korea in violation of the buffer zone agreement, experts say. I’m here.

Pyongyang has been bombarding the buffer zone in recent months.

has also conducted a record-breaking blitzkrieg of missile launches in recent weeks, including his latest ICBM last month. This is the most powerful test of its kind ever by a nuclear-armed state. North Korea, which is barred from testing ballistic missiles by UN Security Council resolutions, says testing a nuclear weapon is a legitimate response to Washington’s efforts to strengthen the protection it offers its allies Seoul and Tokyo. is doing.

Officials and analysts in Seoul and Washington say the launch could lead to a seventh nuclear test.