Seoul, March 30: Amid tensions between South Korea and the North, Seoul has staged a live-fire artillery exercise near an island where the two Koreas exchanged fire in November 2010.
The exercise on Yeonpyeong Island near the tense Yellow Sea border began at 9.30 a.m. (0030 GMT) and was scheduled to last about one hour.
Earlier, an official from the country’s Marine Corps was quoted by the Yonhap news agency as saying that the corps “will hold the naval firing drills on Yeonpyeong and Baengnyeong islands as part of routine training.”
Last November, Seoul and Pyongyang exchanged artillery fire in the Yellow Sea border island of Yeonpyeong. The two blamed each other for the launch of the border fighting.
South Korea says it returned fire after North Korean forces shelled one of its islands, but the North says the South fired first. Two South Korean troops lost their lives in the clashes.
In recent months, the US and South Korea have conducted several massive joint sea and air drills in waters east of the Korean Peninsula.
——-Agencies