Incident comes days after South Korea said it would conduct its largest ever annual joint military exercises with the US in March

This article is more than 4 years old

This article is more than 4 years old

North Korea fired artillery rounds during an apparent military drill near a frontline island on Saturday, a military spokesman from South Korea said, as tensions run high following nuclear and missile tests by Pyongyang.



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The incident comes days after the South said it would conduct its largest ever annual joint military exercises with the United States in March. The exercises usually cause a spike in cross-border friction.

“The North Korean army fired a few artillery rounds” at around 7.20am from an artillery battery at Jangsangot promontory on its southern coast near the disputed sea border between the two Koreas, a defence ministry statement said.

“North Korea is believed to have conducted a military drill” north of the sea border, it said.

As a precautionary measure the South urged residents on Baengnyeongdo island to prepare to go into shelters and fishing vessels at sea to return to nearby ports, it said.

In 2010 the North shelled Yeonpyeong island near Baengnyeongdo, killing four people, in response to a live-fire drill conducted by the South near the disputed sea border.