North Korea shell barrage alarms South, residents evacuated

• North Korea fires 200+ artillery shells towards the South Korean island.
• Shelling lands in the buffer zone, prompting evacuation warnings but no casualties.
• The South condemns shelling as a “provocative act,” escalating tensions.

According to Seoul’s military, North Korea has fired more than 200 artillery shell rounds toward Yeonpyeong island in the South, off its west coast.

Though it’s unclear if it’s related to the shelling, South Korea promptly sent out an evacuation warning to island residents.

The decision has drawn criticism from the South, which described it as a “provocative act.”

Four individuals were killed by many rounds launched by North Korean artillery on Yeonpyeong island in 2010.

The artillery shells that were fired on Friday between 09:00 and 11:00 local time (00:00 and 02:00 GMT) all landed in the buffer zone separating the two countries, preventing them from entering South Korean soil.

The event “caused no damage to our people or military,” according to South Korea’s Joint Chiefs of Staff, but it also “threatens peace on the Korean peninsula and raises tensions.”

The shelling comes after Pyongyang issued threats, claiming it was stockpiling weapons in anticipation of a war that might “break out at any time” on the peninsula.

Authorities also announced an evacuation order on neighboring Baengnyeong Island.

The most recent event happened months after North Korea completely halted a military agreement with the South that was supposed to strengthen ties between the two countries.

Subsequently, Pyongyang declared that it would remove all measures “taken to prevent military conflict in all spheres, including ground, sea, and air,” and that “new-type military hardware and more powerful armed forces” would be stationed in the border region.

However, in the two years prior, North Korea had repeatedly broken the agreement by firing artillery rounds and launching missiles into the sea toward the South. Nine such events occurred in December 2022 alone, the last time North Korea launched artillery projectiles into the sea.

Yeonpyeong island is 3 km (2 miles) from the disputed maritime border in the Yellow Sea and 12 km from the coast of North Korea. It is home to a military base and a tiny civilian population of roughly 2,000 people.

Over the years, it has been the site of naval confrontations between the Koreas.

2010 saw North Korea fire scores of artillery projectiles towards the island, killing two troops and two civilians.

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