EOJU, South Korea (Dispatches) - North Korea’s military has confirmed firing over 250 artillery shells into maritime buffer zones near the inter-Korean border, describing it as a “serious warning” against the South’s ongoing joint war games with the United States.
A spokesman for the General Staff of the Korean People’s Army (KPA) said in a Wednesday statement that Pyongyang had launched the “warning” shots as a “powerful military countermeasure” against joint U.S.-South Korea war games in the area that began on Monday and are due to continue until Saturday.
The statement, carried by North Korea’s official Korean Central News Agency (KCNA), demanded that the South immediately halt the “reckless and inciting provocations” that have raised military tensions on the peninsula.
The announcement came hours after the North launched the artillery shells into waters off its east and west coasts.
Pyongyang’s acknowledgment of firing the artillery shells came hours after Seoul reported them, while calling on the North to immediately stop such actions.
South Korean and American troops practiced building floating bridges to ferry tanks and other armored vehicles across rivers on Wednesday, part of a larger joint military exercise that has angered North Korea.
South Korean attack helicopters deployed flares and armored vehicles blew white smoke screens into the air as main battle tanks, armored personnel carriers, and other military vehicles crossed pontoon bridges over the Namhan River near Yeoju, south of Seoul.
The drill involved armored “attacking” forces of the South Korean army’s 11th Mobile Division, which is participating in the 12-day Hoguk 22 field exercises, crossing bridges established by South Korean and U.S. engineering units.
North Korea has condemned the drills for raising tensions and has test-fired rockets and artillery in response.
About 1,000 South Korean and U.S. troops participated on Wednesday, with about 50 tanks and other armored vehicles, KF-16 fighter jets, Apache and Cobra attack helicopters, and more than 140 pieces of engineering equipment such as floating bridge units, according to South Korea’s defense ministry.
The drills simulated a so-called wet gap crossing, military jargon for any obstacle filled with water, such as a river, said Captain Sean Kasprisin, a company commander in the U.S. Army’s 11th Engineer Battalion, calling it “tough and realistic training”.