North and South Korea trade fire

South Korea shoots back after North Korean shells fall south of NLL

Ridzwan Rahmat, Singapore and James Hardy, London -
30 March 2014


South Korea fired K-9 self-propelled howitzers (SPHs) into the West Sea (Yellow Sea) and dispatched F-15K fighter aircraft after North Korea fired artillery into waters south of the Northern Limit Line (NLL) on 31 March.

According to the South Korean Joint Chiefs of Staffs (JCS), North Korea fired about 500 artillery shells during live-fire drills from 1215 to 1530 h local time, 100 of which landed roughly 3.6 km into South Korean waters in the West Sea. South Korean forces responded by firing 300 rounds from 155 mm K-9 SPHs, the South Korean Ministry of National Defence said in a statement.

Residents on Baengnyeong - the westernmost South Korean island in the West Sea - were ordered into temporary shelters as a precaution, the statement added.

The Southwestern Command of the Korean People's Army (KPA) had warned the live-fire drills were taking place by sending a fax to the Republic of Korea Navy's Second Fleet at 0800 h local time. The fax said live-fire drills would take place in seven sea border areas of the West Sea north of the NLL.

"North Korea demanded South Korea control its vessels in seven regions north of the NLL before it held the live-fire drills," the South Korea JCS said. "We banned vessels from entering the training zone for the safety of residents and sailors."

COMMENT

The Korean peninsula's West Sea (Yellow Sea) coast is a regular location for confrontations between North and South Korea, not least because Pyongyang does not recognise the NLL, which was unilaterally declared by US military officers in the 1950s.

The fact that South Korean civilians and military personnel inhabit a number of islands - including Baengnyeong and Yeonpyeong - that are much closer to North Korea than the South Korean peninsula complicates the situation further. In November 2010 North Korea fired artillery at Yeonpyeong, killing four South Koreans and injuring 18, while the March 2010 sinking of ROKS Chon An occurred off Baengnyeong.

The North's live-fire exercise comes a day after it released a statement defending the 26 March firing of two No Dong ballistic missiles into the East Sea (Sea of Japan). In the statement North Korea attacked the United States for the ongoing series of joint drills with South Korean forces, which it described as "madcap nuclear war exercises".

Beyond the rhetoric, it is unsurprising that Pyongyang should feel it necessary to respond to the US-South Korean exercises, which started in February and are expected to last for about two months. So far the North's response has been relatively measured by its own standards: the No Dong launches were from the East Sea (Sea of Japan) coast and landed in international waters, while the artillery firings on 31 March were preceded by a warning and were not directed at South Korea's islands in the West Sea.

Notably, the South has also been relatively restrained, given that its armed forces were heavily criticised for what was perceived as a slow reaction to the 2010 attacks on Yeonpyeong and Chon An . Following those attacks, Seoul developed new rules of engagement that emphasised a "proportionate" military response to any action by the North. The firing of 300 shells from K-9 SPHs would appear to come under that heading.