S. Korea orders evacuation to shelters after North’s shelling

SEOUL: 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” northwest of Yeonpyeong Island on Saturday afternoon, 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 during 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 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”.

“North Korea, following its claim of the complete nullification of the ‘Sept 19 Military Agreement’, continues to threaten our citizens with ongoing artillery fire within the prohibited hostile act zone,” the JCS said, referring to the 2018 deal.

“In response, our military will take appropriate measures,” it said.In November, Seoul partially suspended the 2018 military accord to protest Pyongyang’s putting a spy satellite into orbit. North Korea then scrapped the deal completely.

“It feels as if going back to the era of the Cold War, where the other side’s actions are deemed violations and provocations, while one’s own actions are seen as defensive and justified responses,” Yang Moo-jin, president of the University of North Ko­rean Studies in Seoul, said.

He urged Seoul to explore the possibility of working with China — North Korea’s major ally, which has urged restraint from both sides — to reduce tensions on the peninsula. “The downside of the tit-for-tat strategy is the inability to take a moderate approach first, even when anticipating significant losses, due to pride,” he said.

“It is crucial for the leaders of North and South Korea to always remember that when verbal bombshells turn into actions, it will not only mean the end of their regimes but also the demise of our nation.”

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.

South Korea returned fire in an exchange that lasted more than an hour, as the two sides traded more than 200 shells, sparking brief fears of a full-fledged war.