Koreas trade gunfire

Seoul: The two Koreas traded hundreds of rounds of live artillery fire across their disputed maritime border on Monday, forcing South Korean islanders to take shelter a day after the North drove up tensions by threatening a new nuclear test.

The exchange, triggered by a three-hour North Korean live-fire exercise that dropped shells into South Korean waters, was limited to untargeted shelling into the sea, military officials said. South Korea’s defence ministry said the North fired some 500 shells during the drill, around 100 of which landed on the south side of the sea boundary.

Ministry spokesman Kim Min-Seok said the South had responded to Pyongyang’s “premeditated provocation” by firing 300 shells from K-9 self-propelled howitzer batteries based on its front-line islands. “If the North takes issue with our legitimate returning of fire and uses it to make yet another provocation towards our sea and islands, we will make a resolute retaliation,” Mr Kim said.

Analysts said the incident, coming a day after Pyongyang threatened to conduct a “new form” of nuclear test, was largely a sign of the North’s growing frustration with US resistance to resuming multi-party talks on its nuclear programme.

“I don’t see that this ran any real risk of escalating into a serious clash,” said Yang MooJin, a professor at the University of North Korean Studies in Seoul.

The North had ensured maximum publicity for its live-fire drill by taking the unusual step of notifying the South beforehand, and issuing a provocative no-sail, no-fly advisory.