By Canadian Press

North Korea conducts artillery drills along disputed sea border, South Korea to stage similar drills

Jan 4, 2024 | 9:20 PM

SEOUL, South Korea (AP) — North Korea fired artillery rounds near its disputed sea boundary with South Korea on Friday in violation of a fragile 2018 military agreement, officials said, prompting the South to plan similar drills.

The rivals’ drills are the first in about a year and are expected to deepen their already-serious animosity.

South Korea’s Joint Chiefs of Staff said North Korea fired 200 rounds in the waters north of their disputed western sea boundary.

It called the North Korean drills a provocation, though South Korea suffered no damage. It said South Korea will take a corresponding step, but didn’t elaborate.

Residents of South Korea’s front-line island of Yeonpyeong said the South Korean military has asked them to evacuate because it plans to launch maritime firing drills later Friday.

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The Koreas’ sea boundary has been the site of several bloody inter-Korean sea battles since 1999. North Korea also launched artillery strikes on Yeonpyeong island, killing four South Koreans, in 2010.

The 2018 agreement requires the two Koreas to halt live-fire exercises and aerial surveillance in no-fly and buffer zones that they established along their border. But the deal is in danger of collapsing after the two Koreas began bickering since the North’s first military spy satellite launch in November.

South Korea accused North Korea of restoring front-line guard posts that it had dismantled under the 2018 deal, after South Korea resumed front-line aerial surveillance in protest of the North’s satellite launch.

Earlier Friday, North Korea’s state media said leader Kim Jong Un ordered authorities to increase production of mobile launch vehicles for missiles because the country faces a looming military showdown with its enemies.

The official Korean Central News Agency said Kim made the comments during a visit to a factory that produces transport erector launchers, or TELs, without saying when he went or where the factory is.

TELs are mobile launch vehicles which give North Korea the ability to move missiles around its territory, making it more difficult for its adversaries to detect launches in advance. Some South Korean experts have estimated that North Korea has about 100-200 such vehicles.

Kim said the factory’s role is “very important” in bolstering North Korea’s national defense “given the prevailing grave situation that requires the country to be more firmly prepared for a military showdown with the enemy,” KCNA reported.

“He took an important measure for expanding the production capacity of the factory,” it said.

Experts say Kim is likely to increase weapons tests ahead of the U.S. presidential election in November because of a belief that a boosted military capability would increase his chances of wresting U.S. concessions if former President Donald Trump is reelected.

In a key ruling party meeting last week, Kim vowed to expand the country’s nuclear arsenal, launch three additional military spy satellites and take other steps to build up the military this year to acquire “overwhelming” war readiness to cope with what he called U.S.-led confrontation. Kim cited the expansion of U.S.-South Korean military drills that sometimes involve U.S. long-range bombers and a nuclear-armed submarine.

Hyung-jin Kim, The Associated Press