South Korea said on Friday that North Korea has conducted artillery drills and fired over 200 shells along their disputed sea boundary in violation of a fragile 2018 military agreement.
The drills, which prompted immediate evacuation orders in South Korea's Yeonpyeong Island, are said to be the first in about a year and are expected to deepen their already-serious animosity.
Residents, numbering roughly 2,000 people living on the island, were reportedly instructed to seek shelter.
South Korea's Joint Chiefs of Staff called the North Korean drills a provocation. South Korea said it will take a corresponding step, but didn't elaborate.
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Residents of South Korea's front-line island of Yeonpyeong said the South Korean military asked them to evacuate because it plans to launch maritime firing drills later Friday.
The sea boundary between South and North Korea has been the site of several bloody inter-Korean sea battles since 1999. North Korea also launched artillery strikes on Yeonpyeong island, killing four South Koreans, in 2010.
The 2018 agreement requires the two Koreas to halt live-fire exercises and aerial surveillance in no-fly and buffer zones that they established along their border.
In a key ruling party meeting last week, North Korean leader Kim Jong Un had vowed to expand the country's nuclear arsenal, launch three additional military spy satellites and take other steps to build up the military this year to acquire “overwhelming” war readiness to cope with what he called US-led confrontation.
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Kim had cited the expansion of US-South Korean military drills that sometimes involve US long-range bombers and a nuclear-armed submarine.
In November, South Korea's military had said North Korea is suspected of sending short-range ballistic missiles, anti-tank missiles and portable anti-aircraft missiles to Russia, in addition to rifles, rocket launchers, mortars and shells.
State media reported Friday that Kim Jong Un ordered authorities to increase production of mobile launch vehicles for missiles because the country faces a looming military showdown with its enemies.
The official Korean Central News Agency said Kim visited a factory that produces transport erector launchers, or TELs, without saying when he went or where the factory was.
The report on Kim's order came hours after the White House said US intelligence has determined that North Korea has supplied ballistic missile launchers to Russia for its war in Ukraine.
The US and its allies have previously accused North Korea of sending artillery and ammunition to Russia in return for Russian technologies to enhance its military programmes.
(With inputs from AP)
