North Korea Conducts Live-Fire Artillery Drills Near South

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RIA Novosti, PUBLISHED 30.04.2014

Pyongyang has begun a live-fire military exercise near the maritime border with South Korea, Reuters reported Tuesday.

South Korea’s Joint Chiefs of Staff said Seoul had been notified in advance about the upcoming drill near two of its islands in the Yellow Sea.

The war games started at 4 p.m. local time (5 a.m. GMT) and no rounds had hit South Korean territory, Reuters said.

In late March, the North conducted another exercise in the maritime zone close to the Korean border, firing 500 shells. A hundred of them landed into the sea south of the Northern Limit Line, prompting Seoul to fire some 300 missiles of its own from self-propelled K-9 howitzers.

The demarcation line is a disputed divide that curves northward, cutting off a group of South Korean islets from the mainland.

Earlier this month, North Korea accused Washington of escalating tensions on the Korean Peninsula. Pyongyang warned Washington not to cross a “red line” in its attempts to foment "regime change" in the country.

Last week, South Korean news agencies reported Pyongyang appeared to be gearing up for a fourth nuclear test, citing a significant increase in activity at North Korea’s Punggye-ri facility in the northeast of the country.

Topics: Asia, DPRK

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