North Korea fires off more rounds near marine border
North Korea's military fired over 60 artillery rounds near Yeonpyeong Island on Saturday, Seoul's military said, a day after both sides staged live-fire drills in the same area near their contested maritime border. "North Korean forces conducted artillery fire with over 60 rounds from the northwest area of Yeonpyeong Island today between approximately 16:00 and 17:00 (0700 to 0800 GMT)," Seoul's Joint Chiefs of Staff said in a statement. On Friday, North Korea fired more than 200 rounds of artillery shells near Yeonpyeong and Baengnyeong, two sparsely populated islands situated just south of a defacto maritime border between the two sides. Residents of the two islands were ordered to evacuate to shelters and ferries were suspended amid one of the most serious military escalations on the peninsula since Pyongyang fired shells at one of the islands in 2010. Both Friday and Saturday, North Korea's shells landed in a buffer zone created under a 2018 tension-reducing deal, which fell apart in November after the North launched a spy satellite. Seoul's military said Saturday that "the repeated artillery fire within the prohibited hostile act zone by North Korea poses a threat to the peace on the Korean Peninsula and escalates tensions". They issued "a strong warning", and urged North Korea to immediately stop such actions. "North Korea, following its claim of the complete nullification of the 'September 19 Military Agreement', continues to threaten our citizens with ongoing artillery fire within the prohibited hostile act zone," the JCS said. "In response, our military will take appropriate measures to safeguard our nation," it said. North Korea said on Friday that its live-fire drills had not even had "an indirect effect" on the border islands. Yeonpyeong, which has around 2,000 residents, is about 115 kilometres west of Seoul. Baengnyeong, with a population of 4,900, is about 210 kilometres west of Seoul. In November, Seoul partially suspended the 2018 military accord to protest Pyongyang's putting a spy satellite into orbit. Pyongyang then scrapped the deal completely. In 2010, in response to a South Korean live-fire drill near the sea border, North Korea bombarded Yeonpyeong Island, killing four South Koreans -- two soldiers and two civilians. That was the first attack on a civilian area since the 1950-53 Korean War. (AFP)