North Korea fires artillery shells for 3rd straight day as South sounds stern warning against provocative acts
South Korea Sunday accused Pyongyang of firing artillery shells near their sea boundary for a third straight day amid a provocative statement from Kim Yo Jong, the sister and key ally of North Korea’s supreme leader Kim Jong Un, threatening to launch a military strike immediately in response to any provocation.
The influential sister of the North Korean leader even mocked Seoul’s ability to detect its weapons launches.
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Strongly urging North Korea to halt provocative acts or face an overwhelming, stern response, South Korea’s Joint Chiefs of Staff said Pyongyang fired more than 90 rounds near the disputed western sea boundary on Sunday afternoon. Earlier, South Korea’s military had reported more than 60 rounds of artillery fire on Saturday, a day after launching more than 200 shells.
Mocking Seoul‘s ability to detect its weapons launch, Jong said the Pyongyang army Saturday detonated blasting powder simulating the sound of its coastal artillery on the seashore, to test the South Korean military’s detection capabilities.
“The result was clear as we expected. They misjudged the blasting sound as the sound of gunfire and conjectured it as a provocation. And they even made a false and impudent statement that the shells dropped north” of the sea boundary, Jong said in a statement carried by state news agency KCNA.
“I cannot but say that (South Korean) people are very pitiful as they entrust security to such blind persons and offer huge taxes to them,” Jong said adding that “It is better 10 times to entrust security to a dog with a developed sense of hearing and smell.”
Reacting to the artillery firings by North Korea, Seoul Friday carried out its own firing exercises. The artillery shells launched by the rival nations fell at a maritime buffer zone they had established under a 2018 military agreement meant to ease front-line military tensions.
Experts think that Pyongyang is likely to ramp up weapons tests and escalate its trademark fiery rhetoric against its rivals ahead of South Korea’s parliamentary elections in April and the US presidential elections in November. They say Kim Jong Un likely thinks a bolstered weapons arsenal would allow him to wrest greater US concessions when diplomacy resumes, reported AP.
Earlier today, Jong called South Korea’s military “gangsters” and “clowns in military uniforms.” She also said Seoul’s possible future miscalculation of North Korean moves could cause an accidental clash between the rivals, jeopardizing the safety of Seoul, a city of 10 million people which is only an hour’s drive from the land border.
Last week, Jong issued a statement calling South Korean conservative President Yoon Suk Yeol “foolishly brave” but his liberal predecessor Moon Jae-in “very smart.”
(With inputs from agencies)
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Published: 07 Jan 2024, 05:28 PM IST
