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North Korea blamed South Korea for starting an exchange of artillery Tuesday across their border in the Yellow Sea while threatening “merciless” strikes against its neighbour if it violates that border. If South Korea intrudes into its territorial waters “even 0.001 millimetres, the revolutionary armed forces of (North Korea) will unhesitatingly continue taking merciless military counter-actions against it,” the North’s top military command said in a statement carried by state media. South Korea said the North began firing, raining down more than 100 shells near the border, setting forests and houses on Yeonpyeong island ablaze, killing two South Korean soldiers, injuring at least 13 others and wounding at least four civilians. The island lies 12 km from North Korea’s coast and three kilometres south of the sea border established by the UN after the 1950-53 Korean War. North Korea does not recognise that border and has said it should run south of Yeonpyeong. Naval battles have taken place in the area in 1999, 2002 and November 2009. A South Korean warship was also sunk near the border in March 2010, killing 46 sailors. Seoul blamed Pyongyang for the sinking, but North Korea denied involvement. The statement by the North Korean military command said Tuesday that the only border that exists in the seas west of the two Koreas is the one set by Pyongyang. South Korea “should bear in mind the solemn warning of the revolutionary armed forces that they do not make empty talk”, it said.
North Korea threatens new attacks on South, rejects talks
North Korea Thursday threatened new attacks against the South and rejected a proposal by the UN Command to hold talks, media reports said. The threats followed a North Korean artillery bombardment of a South Korean island near the two countries’ maritime border Tuesday that left two soldiers and two civilians dead and injured another 18 people. “The (North) Korean People’s Army will deal without hesitation the second and third strong physical retaliatory blow,” a North Korean military delegation said, the Yonhap News Agency reported citing official North Korean media. North Koreans blamed the South and its ally the US for the clash that set Yeonpyeong island on fire and forced many residents to flee. The Stalinist state Thursday dismissed a proposal from the US-led UN Command (UNC) to hold talks between generals on the artillery clash. “North Korea rejected the proposal by the UNC because it appeared to see no practical benefit in the talks,” a South Korean defence ministry official said. The UN Command is tasked with monitoring the armistice that ended the 1950-53 Korean War.
North, South Korea exchange fire across disputed western sea border, Seoul says
South Korean Marines fired artillery shells across a disputed sea border Monday after North Korean shells from a live fire drill conducted by Pyongyang fell into the water south of the frontier, Seoul officials told the Associated Press. No shells from either side were fired at any land or military installations, an official with South Korea's Joint Chiefs of Staff said. He provided no other details and spoke on condition of anonymity because of office rules. There were no immediately reports of any injuries. However, residents of a South Korean island near the border said that they had been moved to emergency shelters during the firing. Kang Myeong-sung, speaking from a shelter on Yeonpyeong island, which is in sight of North Korean territory, said that anxious islanders were huddled together in shelters. Kang said he didn't see any fighter jets, but he could hear the boom of artillery fire. In 2010, North Korean artillery killed four South Koreans on Yeonpyeong. The exchange of fire followed Pyongyang's earlier, unusual announcement that it would conduct the drills, a move seen as an expression of Pyongyang's frustration at making little progress in its recent push to win outside aid. The North in recent weeks has increased threatening rhetoric and conducted a series of rocket and ballistic missile launches that are considered acts of protest 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. Pyongyang threatened Sunday to conduct a fourth nuclear test at some point, though Seoul says there are no signs of an imminent detonation. After the North's earlier announcement Monday that it would conduct firing drills in seven areas north of the sea boundary, South Korea responded that it would strongly react if provoked. Pyongyang routinely test-fires artillery and missiles into the ocean, but it's rare for the country to disclose such training plans in advance. Wee Yong-sub, a deputy spokesman at the South Korean Defense Ministry, said the North Korean message was a "hostile" attempt to heighten tension on the Korean Peninsula. The poorly marked western sea boundary has been the scene of several bloody naval skirmishes between the Koreas in recent years. In 2010, North Korea launched artillery strikes on a front-line South Korean island near the boundary, killing four. Pyongyang said it was responding to earlier South Korea's artillery drills that day. Last spring, tension spiked after a near-daily barrage of North Korean threats, including warnings of nuclear strikes against Seoul and Washington, following international criticism of Pyongyang's third nuclear test in February of last year. The North has since gradually dialed down its threats and sought improved ties with South Korea in what foreign analysts say is an attempt to lure international investment and aid. There has been no major breakthrough in the North's reported push to win outside aid, however, with Washington and Seoul calling on the North to first take disarmament steps to prove its sincerity about improving ties, analysts say. The North Korean live-fire drills and the country's hints at a nuclear test are meant to express 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.
North Korea approves ‘final attack’ on South Korea as tensions increase in region
North Korean leader Kim Jong Un declared his front-line troops were in a "quasi-state of war" Friday and ordered them to prepare for battle, a day after the most serious confrontation with South Korea in years. A North Korean military official says a meeting of senior party and defense officials led by North Korean leader Kim Jong Un met Thursday night and "reviewed and approved the final attack operation." He gave no details on what kind of military retaliation North Korea would see as appropriate punishment for South Korea's shelling of its territory Thursday. It’s the latest challenge in the regional feud. South Korea warned Friday that North Korea was likely to launch "provocations" if Seoul did not meet a Saturday deadline to cease propaganda broadcasts. Kim Yong Chol, director of the general reconnaissance bureau of the North Korean army, on Friday denied South Korean allegations that Pyongyang has been raising tensions on the peninsula. He denied the North fired anything across the Demilitarized Zone and says South Korea has not offered conclusive evidence where the rocket was launched in the North, or where exactly it landed in the South.
North Korea preparing long-range missile test, says Japanese report
Kyodo news agency cites government source saying satellite pictures indicate a launch could be as little as a week away North Korea may be preparing to launch a long-range missile within a week, Japan’s Kyodo news agency has reported, citing an unnamed Japanese government official. The official cited signs of possible preparations for a missile launch based on analysis of satellite imagery of the North’s Tongchang-ri missile test site on its west coast. The report comes amid discussions among UN security council members for fresh sanctions against the North after it conducted its fourth nuclear test on 6 January. The North is already under sanctions for its nuclear and missile programmes. North Korea last conducted a long-range rocket launch in late 2012, successfully putting an object into orbit in what is believed by experts to be part of its effort to build an intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM). The North is also thought to be working to miniaturise a nuclear warhead to mount on a missile, but many experts say it is still some time away from perfecting the technology. The Japanese government source said a missile launch could occur in about a week at the earliest, Kyodo reported. It gave no other details about analysis of the satellite imagery. On Wednesday in Beijing the US secretary of state, John Kerry, and the Chinese foreign minister, Wang Yi, agreed on the need for a significant new UN resolution against the North but there were few signs of concrete progress. North Korea said on 6 January that it had exploded a hydrogen bomb, although the United States and other governments and experts voiced scepticism that it had made such a technological advance.
North Korea fires ballistic missiles into Sea of Japan, US confirms
North Korea fired two ballistic missiles into the Sea of Japan Friday, a U.S. defense official told Fox News. Both missiles are believed to be Nodong medium-range ballistic missiles launched from a road-mobile launcher, according to the official. "Neither was assessed to be a threat to the U.S. or our regional allies," the official told Fox News. South Korea's Joint Chiefs of Staff said the missiles flew 500 miles before crashing off the North's east coast on Friday.