No shells from either side were fired at any land or military
installations, but Kim called the North's artillery firing a
provocation aimed at testing Seoul's security posture. There was
no immediate comment from North Korea.
In Washington, White House spokesman Jonathan Lalley called
North Korea's actions "dangerous and provocative" and said they
would further aggravate tensions in the region.
Monday's exchange was relatively mild in the history of
animosity and violence between the Koreas, but there is worry in
Seoul that an increasingly dissatisfied North Korea could repeat
the near-daily barrage of war rhetoric it carried out last
spring, when tensions soared as Pyongyang threatened nuclear
strikes on Washington and Seoul in response to condemnation of
its third nuclear test.
Residents on front-line South Korean islands spent several
hours in shelters during the firing, and officials temporarily
halted ferry service linking the islands to the mainland. Kang
Myeong-sung, speaking from a shelter on Yeonpyeong island, which
is in sight of North Korean territory, said he didn't hear any
fighter jets but heard the boom of artillery fire.
The poorly marked western sea boundary has been the scene of
several bloody naval skirmishes between the Koreas in recent
years. In March 2010, a South Korean warship sank in the area
following a torpedo attack blamed on Pyongyang that left 46
sailors dead. North Korea denies responsibility for the sinking.
In November 2010, a North Korean artillery bombardment killed
four South Koreans on Yeonpyeong.
The North has gradually dialed down its threats since last
year's tirade and has sought improved ties with South Korea in
what foreign analysts say is an attempt to lure investment and
aid. There has been no major breakthrough, however, with
Washington and Seoul calling on the North to first take
disarmament steps to prove its sincerity about improving ties.
Recent weeks have seen an increase in threatening rhetoric
and a series of North Korean rocket and ballistic missile
launches considered acts of protest by Pyongyang against annual
ongoing springtime military exercises by Seoul and Washington.
The North calls the South Korea-U.S. drills a rehearsal for
invasion; the allies say they're routine and defensive.
"The boneheads appear to have completely forgotten the fact
that Yeonpyeong island was smashed by our military's bolt of
lightning a few years ago," a North Korean military official,
Yun Jong Bum, said Monday, according to the North's official
Korean Central News Agency.
Pyongyang also threatened Sunday to conduct a fourth nuclear
test, though Seoul sees no signs it's imminent. Wee Yong-sub, a
deputy spokesman at the South Korean Defence Ministry, said the
North Korean warning about the live-fire drills Monday was a
"hostile" attempt to heighten tension on the Korean Peninsula.
Recent threats are an expression of anger and frustration
over what the North sees as little improvement in progress in
its ties with South Korea and the U.S., said Lim Eul Chul, a
North Korea expert at South Korea's Kyungnam University. Lim
said the North might conduct a fourth nuclear test and launch
other provocations to try to wrest the outside concessions it
wants.
The Korean Peninsula remains in a technical state of war
because the 1950-53 Korean War ended with an armistice, not a
peace treaty. About 28,500 American troops are deployed in South
Korea to deter potential aggression from North Korea.
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