After seeing military exercises taking place across the border in the South, North Korea claimed to have fired more than 130 artillery projectiles into the ocean off its east and west coasts on Monday.
A 2018 inter-Korean agreement meant to lower tensions, according to Seoul, was violated when some of the shells fell in a buffer zone close to the maritime border.
According to a statement from the ministry of defence, the South Korean military warned the North many times about the shooting.
According to a spokesperson for the Korean People’s Army General Staff, the North Korean military opened fire after spotting dozens of “projectiles” that were fired in the South close to their shared border, state news agency KCNA reported.
The unnamed spokesperson warned that the North would respond to any provocation with force and overwhelming military action. “The enemy should immediately cease military actions that cause escalation of tensions in areas near the front lines where visual surveillance is possible,” the spokesperson said.
On Monday, South Korea and the US engaged in a joint land-based firing exercise close to the border in Cheorwon County in the centre of the peninsula. Tuesday is the next day of their practise.
In order to dissuade the nuclear-armed North, which has restarted testing of its long-range intercontinental ballistic missiles for the first time since 2017, as well as its plans to resume nuclear testing, the allies have increased joint military drills this year.
The combined exercises have drawn criticism from North Korea, which sees them as proof of a hostile stance by Seoul and Washington.
The most significant agreement to result from the months of talks between North Korean leader Kim Jong Un and then-South Korean President Moon Jae-in was the 2018 Comprehensive Military Agreement (CMA).
However, recent drills and displays of force along the heavily fortified border between the Koreas have raised concerns about the future of the measures given that those discussions have long since stagnated.
This year, the North has allegedly regularly violated the deal with artillery drills, including one day in mid-October when more than 500 rounds were fired into the ocean, according to South Korea.
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