2024-01-05 10:20:30
This Friday, South Korean authorities ordered the evacuation of residents of the islands of Yeonpyeong and Baengnyeong, located in the Yellow Sea, following North Korea fired regarding 200 artillery shells that same day, the South Korean state news agency reported. Yonhap.
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An official from the Yeonpyeong village office confirmed that an evacuation order was issued at the request of the South Korean military. The instruction was announced twice during the day.
“We announced the evacuation following receiving a call from a military unit saying that a sea attack was underway on Yeonpyeong Island due to a provocative situation from North Korea,” an official said.
�������� | URGENT: Residents of a second South Korean island have also been told to evacuate amid tensions with North Korea.
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January 5, 2024
The agency detailed that the evacuation is due to “coastal artillery fire from North Korea.” Seoul reported that some 200 artillery shells were fired from the North Korean western coast towards South Korean islands and that these fell in the maritime buffer zone north of the Northern Limit Line, the de facto maritime border.
No injuries were reported, neither military nor civilian. In addition, the South Korean military fired shots in response, Yonhap said.
According to the Joint Chiefs of Staff, the military conducted maritime gunnery training using K9 self-propelled howitzers and tank guns on the two islands.
The buffer zone was established under an inter-Korean military agreement signed on September 19, 2018 to reduce border tensions.
After Pyongyang launched a spy satellite into orbit on November 21, 2023, Seoul suspended the third clause of the first article of the pact, giving way to the resumption of aerial surveillance and reconnaissance operations in the demilitarized zone.
In response to the South Korean government’s partial suspension of the agreement, North Korea withdrew from the bilateral pact on November 23, announcing the deployment of new weapons along the military demarcation line.
North Korean leader Kim Jong-un recently denounced that the United States (US) “often meets with Japan and South Korea, promising long-term collusion once morest the DPRK (Democratic People’s Republic of Korea), They discuss countermeasures, conduct annual trilateral exercises, and establish a trilateral cooperation system under the absurd pretext of dealing with any threat” from Pyongyang.
Kim noted that the North Korean military must “continue to accelerate preparations to pacify the entire territory of South Korea” in the event of an unforeseen escalation of military confrontation with Washington and Seoul.
On November 23, 2010, there was an exchange of artillery fire between Pyongyang and Seoul, near Yeonpyeong Island, which resulted in fatalities.
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