(LEAD) N. Korea fires some 200 artillery shells off western coast: S. Korean military

▲ This undated file image, provided by Yonhap News TV, shows North Korean military drills. (PHOTO NOT FOR SALE) (Yonhap)

(LEAD) N Korea-artillery firing

(LEAD) N. Korea fires some 200 artillery shells off western coast: S. Korean military

(ATTN: RECASTS lead; UPDATES throughout with details; ADDS byline)

By Chae Yun-hwan

SEOUL, Jan. 5 (Yonhap) -- North Korea fired some 200 artillery shells into waters off its western coast Friday morning, Seoul's military said, in its latest saber-rattling after it scrapped a 2018 inter-Korean military accord in November.

The Joint Chiefs of Staff (JCS) said it detected the artillery firings from Jangsan Cape and Deungsan Cape, both in the North's southwestern coastal areas, from 9:00 a.m. to 11 a.m.

The shells splashed into the maritime buffer zone north of the Northern Limit Line (NLL), the de facto maritime border in the Yellow Sea. The buffer zone was set under an inter-Korean military accord signed on Sept. 19, 2018, to reduce border tensions.

The JCS said there was no reported damage from the North's artillery firing on South Korean people and the military.

The South Korean military called the North's move a "provocative" act and warned of its corresponding measures.

"We gravely warn that the entire responsibility of such crisis-escalating situations lies with North Korea and strongly urge for its immediate halt," JCS spokesperson Col. Lee Sung-jun said in a press conference.

"Under close coordination between South Korea and the United States, our military is tracking and monitoring related activity, and will conduct corresponding measures to North Korea's provocations."

The South Korean military is planning to conduct live-fire drills on the northwestern border islands in the Yellow Sea later in the day in response to the North's artillery firing, according to officials.

Last November, North Korea unilaterally scrapped the 2018 accord after Seoul partially suspended the deal in protest of the North's successful launch of a military spy satellite.

Pyongyang last fired artillery shots into a maritime buffer zone in the East Sea on Dec. 6, 2022. The North's artillery firing is in violation of the 2018 military accord.

North Korea's latest saber-rattling came after North Korean leader Kim Jong-un defined inter-Korean ties as relations "between two states hostile to each other" and called for stepped-up preparations to "suppress the whole territory of South Korea" at a year-end ruling party meeting.

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