The Marine Corps on Wednesday resumed a full-scale live-fire exercise on islands near the tensely guarded western inter-Korean maritime border for the first time in seven years after South Korea’s suspension of an inter-Korean pact restricting such drills.
The resumption came after South Korea fully suspended the 2018 inter-Korean tension reduction accord in early June that calls for banning live-fire drills in waters near the Northern Limit Line (NLL) — the de facto inter-Korean maritime boundary.
The drills, involving K9 howitzers, Chunmoo multiple rocket launcher systems and Spike anti-tank missiles, took place on the islands of Yeonpyeong and Baengnyeong in the Yellow Sea, just south of the NLL, the Marine Corps said, with troops firing more than 290 rounds into waters off the islands.
“It marked the first maritime firing exercise on the northwestern islands after the Sept. 19 military agreement was fully suspended due to North Korea’s provocations, such as the jamming of GPS signals and missile laun
ches,” it said.
“Even after today’s exercise, (we) will push to enhance the Marine Corps’ firepower operations capabilities and the completeness of the military readiness posture through regular maritime firing exercises.”
The Marine Corps last held a full-scale live-fire exercise on the islands in 2017, before the two Koreas signed the military accord on Sept, 19, 2018, which set up a maritime buffer zone banning such drills, among other measures, to reduce cross-border tensions.
On June 4, South Korea suspended the deal in its entirety in response to the North’s launches of trash-carrying balloons into the South and attempts to disrupt GPS signals near the border islands.
The North has violated the deal around 3,600 times over the years by firing coastal artillery shells into the maritime buffer zone among other acts, according to Seoul’s defense ministry.
South Korea previously held live-fire drills on the islands in a limited scale in January in response to the North’s artillery firing into the water
s at the time.
The Marine Corps described the latest exercise as “defensive,” noting that it was observed by the U.N. Command Military Armistice Commission in charge of overseeing the armistice that ended the 1950-53 Korean War.
Waters near the NLL have been a flashpoint between the two Koreas, where three bloody naval skirmishes took place in 1999, 2002 and 2009.
In November 2010, North Korea bombarded Yeonpyeong Island, leaving two Marines and two civilians dead. The North also torpedoed a South Korean warship in waters near Baengnyeong Island in March that year, killing 46 sailors.
North Korea has never recognized the NLL, demanding that it be re-drawn further south.
Since late last month, North Korea is estimated to have launched more than 2,000 trash-carrying balloons in a tit-for-tat move against anti-Pyongyang propaganda leaflets sent by North Korean defectors in the South.
The exercise also came hours after the North’s launch of a ballistic missile that exploded in midair, according to the South
Korean military.
Source: Yonhap News Agency