2024-01-06 05:22:59
North Korea yesterday fired about two hundred artillery shells near two South Korean islands, something it described as a “natural response” to maneuvers carried out in the area by South Korea, which accused its neighbor of threatening peace on the peninsula.
This military escalation is one of the most serious recorded on the Korean Peninsula since 2010, when the North bombed the Yeonpyeong region.
It takes place after a succession of bellicose statements by the North Korean leader, Kim Jong-un, who in recent days has threatened to “annihilate” South Korea and the United States.
In this context, China, which shares a border with North Korea and is the main political and economic support of that isolated Asian country, called on all parties for “moderation” and asked to avoid a further escalation.
“The North Korean army today fired about two hundred rounds of fire in the areas of Jangsan-got, in the northeast of Bangnyeong Island, and the areas north of Yeonpyeong Island,” the South Korean Ministry of Defense reported.
Subsequently, Seoul denounced in a statement “a provocative act that threatens peace on the Korean Peninsula. “We sternly warn that North Korea bears full responsibility for this escalating crisis and we strongly ask it to immediately cease these actions,” he added.
The residents of the two South Korean islands received orders to evacuate to shelters.
But the Pyongyang regime rejected the accusations and described its firing as a “natural response” to maneuvers carried out by South Korea. “They did not even have an indirect impact on the (South Korean, ed.) islands of Baengnyeong and Yeonpyeong,” said the official North Korean news agency KCNA, citing the General Staff of the People’s Army (KPA).
“If the enemies commit an act that can be considered a provocation under the pretext of so-called neutralization, the KPA will launch a harsh counterattack at an unprecedented level,” he added.
The South Korean Navy launched a live ammunition exercise on the border island of Yeonpyeong following North Korea’s barrage of gunfire, Yonhap news agency reported.
Evacuation orders. Authorities in Bangnyeong and Yeonpyeong ordered the evacuation of civilians as a “preventive measure,” officials said.
The South Korean island of Yeonpyeong is located in the Yellow Sea, about 80 kilometers west of the city of Incheon and 12 kilometers south of the coast of the North Korean province of Hwanghae.
“At first I thought they were projectiles fired by our military, but then they told me it was North Korea,” Kim Jin-soo, a resident of Bangnyeong, told local channel YTN.
Relations between the two Koreas are at a moment of tension not seen in decades, after the North Korean leader, Kim Jong-un, inscribed in the Constitution the country’s vocation as a nuclear power, and tested several intercontinental ballistic missiles.
At an end-of-year political meeting, Kim warned of a nuclear attack from the South and called for strengthening the military arsenal in the face of a conflict that he stated could “break out at any moment.”
Hours before the rocket fire, Kim called for increased production of missile launchers in preparation for a “military confrontation” with South Korea and the United States.
The official KCNA agency showed images of Kim with his daughter Ju Ae at a factory that produces mobile erector launchers (TEL) used for the country’s intercontinental ballistic missiles.
Kim called for “a dynamic effort to increase production” as he stated that the country must be prepared “for a military confrontation with the enemy,” KCNA published.
On Thursday, US National Security Council spokesman John Kirby said Pyongyang supplied Russia with missiles with a range of 900 kilometers and that some were used in attacks against Ukraine.
The Ukrainian army stated yesterday that it is investigating, but could not confirm this information at the moment, but the president, Volodymyr Zelenskyi, did. “The mask has fallen. In the framework of its true genocidal war, the Russian Federation has attacked the territory of Ukraine for the first time with missiles received from North Korea,” presidential advisor Mykhailo Podolyak posted on X.
Moscow, he added, “attacks the Ukrainians with missiles received from a State where citizens are tortured in concentration camps, never before in history has the classic ‘Axis of Evil’ appeared so blatantly, grotesquely evil: Russia, Iran, Korea from North”. Kim met with Russian President Vladimir Putin in Russia’s Far East in September. The United States and South Korea then accused North Korea of providing weapons to Russia for use in Ukraine in exchange for satellite technology. And Russia frequently uses Iranian drones to attack Ukrainian territory.
Yesterday, Kim praised the factory workers and stated that they surpassed “the TEL production goal” set by the ruling party in 2023.
In 2023, the North successfully launched a reconnaissance satellite after receiving, according to South Korea, help from Russia in exchange for sending weapons for the offensive in Ukraine.
China, Kim’s great ally, calls for “moderation”
Agencies
China issued a call for “moderation” to all parties this Friday, after Seoul authorities claimed that North Korea launched a barrage of projectiles near two South Korean islands.
“In the current situation, we hope that all parties involved will maintain calm and restraint, refrain from taking measures that aggravate tension, avoid further escalation of the situation and create conditions for the resumption of serious dialogue,” he said. Foreign Ministry spokesperson Wang Wenbin told reporters.
North Korea, which is technically still at war with its southern neighbor, fired more than two hundred projectiles on Friday near the remote South Korean islands of Yeonpyeong and Baengnyeong, where civilians had to be evacuated to shelters. Seoul denounced it as a “provocation” and promised “appropriate measures” in response.
China, which shares a border with North Korea, is the main political and economic support of that isolated Asian country, which is under international sanctions.
In a New Year message, Chinese President Xi Jinping and his North Korean counterpart Kim Jong-un on Monday jointly declared 2024 as the year of “friendship” between their two countries, the Chinese news agency reported. Xinhua.
“China’s unwavering policy is to maintain, consolidate and develop the long-standing relations of friendship and cooperation between the two countries,” Xi stressed.
In December, the head of Chinese diplomacy, Wang Yi, reaffirmed his country’s “firm support” for North Korea after Pyongyang fired another ballistic missile, which had already fueled tensions on the Korean peninsula.
The North rebuilds the infrastructure of the demilitarized zone
Agencies
The North Korean authorities yesterday began to rebuild their checkpoints with concrete in the Demilitarized Zone established between the two Koreas, as the inter-Korean agreement reached in 2018 was suspended in an attempt to achieve an improvement in relations between the two countries.
Sources from the South Korean Defense Ministry indicated that Pyongyang is using concrete to reinforce these checkpoints to monitor the ‘de facto’ border between the two Koreas.
In this sense, they warned that North Korea could be considering increasing these posts and deploying more heavy weapons and troops in the vicinity given the rise in tensions in the region.
The Comprehensive Military Agreement – which stipulated the complete demilitarization of the area – was signed on September 19, 2018 in a conciliatory atmosphere under the Administration of the now former South Korean president Moon Jae In, who then traveled to Pyongyang to hold talks with the North Korean leader. Kim Jong-un.
Within the framework of this agreement, both countries demolished a dozen checkpoints within the area and proceeded to disarm each of them, so North Korea had 150 checkpoints and South Korea only 67.
However, following Seoul’s withdrawal from the inter-Korean agreement, North Korea has promised to restore all military measures in the area. The temporary suspension of the agreement came after North Korea successfully launched its first military satellite in mid-November.
The South Korean Army warned that it has also detected the installation of mines by North Korean troops on two little-traveled roads that connect the eastern and western areas of the two Koreas and were considered in the past a symbol of reconciliation and dialogue between the parties. .
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