Koreas Trade Fire Across Sea Border

North and South Korea have exchanged fire into the sea across the dis­put­ed west­ern sea bor­der, South Korea says. North Korea announced ear­ly on Monday that it would hold live-fire drills in sev­en parts of the bor­der area. South Korea says it returned fire after North Korean shells land­ed in its ter­ri­to­r­i­al waters. The area has been a flash-point between the two Koreas. The UN drew the west­ern bor­der after the Korean War, but North Korea has nev­er rec­og­nized it. n late 2010, four South Koreans were killed on a bor­der island by North Korean artillery fire. Border fire was also briefly exchanged in August 2011.

The live-fire exer­cis­es were announced by North Korea in a faxed mes­sage from its mil­i­tary to the South’s navy. South Korea warned of imme­di­ate retal­i­a­tion if any shells crossed the bor­der. “Some of [North Korea’s] shells land­ed south of the bor­der dur­ing the drill. So our mil­i­tary fired back north of the bor­der in line with ordi­nary pro­to­col,” a defence min­istry state­ment said.South Korea said the two sides exchanged hun­dreds of shells.“The North fired some 500 shots… and some 100 of them land­ed in waters south of the bor­der,” said Defence Ministry spokesman Kim Min-seok. The South fired more than 300 rounds in return, he said. Residents of a bor­der island, Baengnyeong, were evac­u­at­ed into shel­ters dur­ing the three-hour inci­dent. http://​www​.bbc​.com/​n​e​w​s​/​w​o​r​l​d​-​a​s​i​a​-​2​6​8​1​5​041

In November 2010, North Korea fired shells at the bor­der island of Yeonpyeong, killing two marines and two civil­ians. It said it was respond­ing to South Korean mil­i­tary exer­cis­es in the area.Earlier that year, a South Korean war­ship sank near Baengnyeong island with the loss of 46 lives. Seoul says Pyongyang tor­pe­doed the ves­sel but North Korea

denies any role in the inci­dent. ‘New form’ test .China — North Korea’s biggest trad­ing part­ner — called for calm and restraint after the exchange of fire. It came days after North Korea test-fired two medi­um-range Nodong mis­siles over the sea, its first such launch since 2009.Late last week, the UN Security Council con­demned the launch and said it was con­sid­er­ing an “appro­pri­ate response”. That launch fol­lowed a series of short-range mis­sile tests, seen as a response to the cur­rent US-South Korea annu­al mil­i­tary exer­cis­es. Over the week­end, North Korea also threat­ened to con­duct a “new form” of nuclear test. It has con­duct­ed three nuclear tests to date, the most recent in February 2013. South Korea’s Unification Ministry said on Monday that there was no sign a North Korean nuclear test was imminent.