SEOUL – North Korea fired about 130 artillery shells into the sea off its east and west coasts on Monday, South Korean officials said, in the latest military exercise Pyongyang has held near their shared border.
Some of the shells landed in a buffer zone near the sea border, which Seoul says violates a 2018 inter-Korean agreement aimed at reducing tensions.
The South Korean military sent several warning messages to the North regarding the firing, the Defense Ministry said in a statement.
North Korea did not immediately report the artillery fire, but said it believed increased military activity, including missile launches and exercises by warplanes and artillery units, was in response to allied exercises in the South.
South Korea and the United States are holding a joint ground-fire drill near the border in Cheorwon County, in the middle of the peninsula, on Monday. Their training will continue on Tuesday.
Allies have stepped up joint military exercises this year, citing the need to deter the nuclear-armed North.
The 2018 Comprehensive Military Agreement (CMA) was the most significant agreement reached in months of meetings between leader Kim Jong-un and then-South Korean President Moon Jae-in.
While those talks have long stalled, recent drills and shows of force along the fortified border between the Koreas have cast doubt on the future of the measures.
South Korea has accused North Korea of repeatedly violating the agreement on artillery drills this year, including when more than 500 shells were fired into the sea in mid-October.
This year, North Korea continued to test long-range intercontinental ballistic missiles (ICBMs) for the first time since 2017, and South Korea and the United States said they were also preparing to resume nuclear tests.