Amid further tension following the recent sinking of a South Korean warship, North Korea fired 110 rounds of artillery near the disputed sea borders with South Korea on Monday.
The show of force comes as South Korea ends five days of naval drills of the west coast, which North Korea has seen as a threat or rehearsal for invasion.
Tension has been high in the region following the deadly sinking of a South Korean vessel, the Cheonan, by a torpedo in March. 46 sailors were killed in the explosion. South Korea blames the North for the incident, but they totally deny any involvement and have warned of war if retaliated against.
The shells in the latest incident landed in the water without causing any damage, but were clearly intended as a response to the South’s recent posturing, which has involved joint naval exercises with the United States.
“This was their way of saying ‘We’ll respond to military drills with military drills,’” Professor Yang Moon-jin from Seoul University said of the incident.
He also suggested that the recent incident was aimed at forcing the United States to engage in talks over signing a peace treaty between the North and the South, who are technically still at war since only an ‘armistice’ was signed to bring the Korean War to an end in 1953.
