North, South Korea exchange fire across western sea border

North Korea on Monday held military exercises near the maritime border with the South, drawing response fire from Southern troops, a news report said.

Some artillery shells from the North landed on the other side of the Northern Limit Line, a disputed maritime border off the west of the peninsula, prompting South Korean forces to fire self-propelled howitzer shells in response, the South’s joint chiefs of staff (JCS) were quoted as saying by Yonhap News Agency in Seoul.

The JCS had received a fax announcing the drill from the North’s Korean People’s Army earlier Monday, the report said.

Seoul banned vessels from entering the training zone declared by the North, and evacuated a nearby island, Yonhap said.

North Korea conducts regular artillery drills, but does not usually give advance warning.

In March 2013, leader Kim Jong Un attended a drill involving several artillery weapons in the naval base of Wonsan on the eastern coast, around 100 kilometres north of the border.

Pyongyang had on Sunday also threatened to carry out new nuclear tests despite condemnation from the UN Security Council for its recent missile launches into the sea.

The North has slammed this month’s joint military drills by South Korean and US forces as rehearsal for an invasion.

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