Photo Credit: Jung Yeon-Je, AFP/Getty
By Donna Leinwand Leger.
A barrage of artillery fire between North and South Korea across disputed maritime borders on Monday marked an annual show of force by North Korea intent on sending a message to the U.S. as it conducts military exercises nearby.
North Korea’s missile launches into the Yellow (West) Sea followed by a threat of live-fire drills along the border “was really aimed at our policymakers, Republic of Korea policymakers and Japan,” said Bruce Bechtol, a Korea specialist and professor of political science at Angelo State University in Texas.
“North Korea is saying, ‘You can do all the exercises you want and we have the ability to hit you at a moment’s notice,'” Bechtol said.
The U.S. and South Korea routinely conduct joint military exercises in the border areas, usually each year in February and March. The most recent exercise began March 27.
The North Koreans said they believe the exercises are meant to intimidate them and often react with some show of force, Bechtol said.
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N. Korea fires on South during North’s military drills; South responds
By Euan McKirdy and Stella Kim.
North and South Korean artillery batteries exchanged hundreds of shells across their western sea border Monday, a day after North Korea warned it was preparing to test another nuclear device.
About 100 of the 500 shells North Korea fired into the Yellow Sea strayed across the line separating the two rivals’ territorial waters, the semiofficial South Korean news agency Yonhap reported. Yonhap quoted the South Korean Joint Chiefs of Staff as saying the South responded by firing about 300 shells into North Korean waters and dispatching fighter jets to the boundary, known as the Northern Limit Line.
North Korean offshore firing appeared to have resumed after a lull, Yonhap reported, citing a resident of Baekryong Island, which is close to the Northern Limit Line.
“Some (North Korean) artillery fire landed in (the) southern part of Northern Limit Line but in the water,” a South Korean Ministry of Defense spokesman said. “We counter-fired over the Northern Limit Line.”
When asked what South Korea fired back at, the defense spokesman said, “We are not shooting at North Korea, just shooting into the sea.”
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