The North Korean military claims it has given orders for frontline forces to fire artillery into the sea for the second day in a row as retaliation for South Korean live-fire drills in an area along the country’s interior border.
The North Korean People’s Army General Staff made the statement a day after the North fired 130 artillery rounds into waters close to its western and eastern maritime borders with South Korea in the most recent military move, escalating tensions between the rivals. The planned artillery firings on Tuesday, according to an unnamed North Korean military spokesperson, were intended as a warning to the South after the North noticed signs of South Korean artillery exercises near the border.
The South Korean army is conducting live-fire drills in two different testing sites in the Cheorwon region with howitzers and many rocket launchers that started on Monday and will go until Wednesday.
The military of North Korea stated on Monday that it had warned its western and eastern coastline troops to fire artillery as a warning after spotting a number of South Korean rockets traveling southeast from the Cheorwon area.
The Joint Chiefs of Staff of South Korea stated that the North Korean shells fired fell within the northern side of the buffer zones established as part of an inter-Korean agreement to lower military tensions in 2018 and urged the North to uphold the agreement.
Since Nov. 3, when over 80 artillery shells fell on North Korea’s side of the zone off its eastern coast, this was the first time North Korea had fired weapons into the maritime buffer zones.
This year, North Korea has conducted a record number of missile tests, including several of an intercontinental ballistic missile system that may be able to penetrate deep into the US mainland and an intermediate-range missile shot over Japan.
In a furious response to an expansion of joint US-South Korean military exercises that North Korea views as preparations for a potential invasion, North Korea has also carried out a number of short-range launches that it described as simulated nuclear attacks on South Korean and US targets.
According to experts, North Korea wants to use its nuclear capability to pressure the United States into accepting economic and security concessions from a position of strength. North Korea may soon step up the ante by conducting its first nuclear test since 2017 according to South Korean officials.
