North Korea bombards South Korea’s border island with artillery munitions

North Korea shot over 200 artillery shells towards South Korea‘s Yeonpyeong island.

Later, South Korea told people to find safety on the island and then did practice shooting exercises there.

The South said the move is a “provocative act” and they disagree with it.

In 2010, artillery from North Korea shot many times at Yeonpyeong island, and four people died.

On Friday, bombs were shot between 9:00 and 11:00 in the morning. They did not go into South Korea because they landed in the area between the two countries.

The Joint Chiefs of Staff in South Korea said that the incident did not harm anyone or our military. But they also said that it could make the situation tense and threaten peace in Korea.

North Korea has been saying they are getting ready for war and now they are shelling. They say a war could happen anytime.

Officials on the nearby Baengnyeong Island also said that people have to leave the area.

The most recent event happened several months after North Korea stopped a military agreement with South Korea. The agreement was meant to make their relationship better.

The deal started to go bad after Pyongyang said they sent a spy satellite into space in November. This caused South Korea to stop some parts of the agreement and they said they would start doing surveillance flights along the border again.

Later, Pyongyang said it would stop trying to avoid military conflict on land, sea, and in the air. It will also send stronger armed forces and new military equipment to the border region.

North Korea broke the agreement several times by shooting missiles and firing weapons towards South Korea. North Korea shot artillery shells into the sea nine times in the year 2022. The most recent time was in December.

Some experts think that if Pyongyang stops following the deal, it may not change things very much.

“North Korea didn’t follow the agreement from the beginning, so there was always a chance of a small clash happening,” explained Jo Bee Yun from the Korea Institute for Defence Analysis.

Yeonpyeong island has a military base and about 2,000 people live there. It’s located 3km (2 miles) away from a disputed sea border in the Yellow Sea and 12km from the North Korean coast.

It has been a place where Korea’s navy has fought each other for many years.

In 2010, North Korea shot many shells at an island and killed two soldiers and two people who were not soldiers.