North Korea fires 200 shells near Yeonpyeong Island

According to the island’s government, the South Korean military had requested the evacuation citing North Korean provocation.

Yeonpyeong Island resident hides at the evacuation bunkers on the island accordingly at the South Korean military order after North Kora fired 200 shells earlier in the day. [YONHAP]

Residents of Yeonpyeong Island are being evacuated.

Authorities on the island say the South Korean military asked for the evacuation, citing North Korean provocations.

The evacuation warnings were issued at 12:02 p.m. and 12:30 p.m.

There are eight evacuation centers operating on Yeonpyeong Island, which is home to 2,100 residents.

North Korean coastal artillery reportedly fired around 200 rounds into the waters north of the Northern Limit Line — the maritime border between South and North Korea — between 9 and 11 a.m.

In response, South Korea's Marine Crops announced they would conduct a fire exercise in the island region.

The Joint Chiefs of Staff said no harm was reported to South Korean military bases on the islands or civilians.

It added that the South Korean military would respond with a proportional level of counterforce if provoked.

"The shelling into the buffer zone on the West Sea marks North Korea's [first] resumption of artillery fire since unilaterally terminating the 2018 inter-Korean agreement," JCS spokesman Col. Lee Sung-joon said.

"We sternly caution North Korea that the escalating crisis is entirely their responsibility and strongly urge them to cease immediately."

The JCS spokesman added that the South Korean military is working closely with the United States to monitor North Korea. The region along the Northern Limit Line, a maritime border between the two Koreas, was designated a buffer zone under the inter-Korean military agreement signed in 2018 to reduce tensions on the Korean Peninsula.

However, in November of last year, North Korea announced its decision to scrap the agreement in response to the Yoon Suk Yeol government's decision to suspend certain articles of the agreement, such as the no-fly zone.

The Yoon government argued that North Korea didn’t uphold its end of the deal.

South Korean marines who had boarded a ship headed for Baengnyeong Island from Incheon disembarked at the Incheon terminal following an evacuation alert triggered by North Korea's firing of 200 shells near Yeonpyeong and Baengnyeong Islands on Friday. [YONHAP]

Nearby Baengnyeong Island received the same evacuation order from the military.

The islands, close to the maritime border with North Korea, are under constant threat.

In November 2010, North Korea shelled Yeonpyeong Island, resulting in the deaths of four people — two civilians and two Marines.

BY LEE HO-JEONG [lee.hojeong@joongang.co.kr]