Marine Corps holds firing drills on border islands

The Marine Corps on Thursday conducted firing drills on islands near the tense western inter-Korean maritime border, officials said, in the second such exercise held after South Korea's suspension of an inter-Korean military pact restricting such drills. The hourlong exercise took place on the islands of Yeonpyeong and Baengnyeong in the Yellow Sea, just south of the Northern Limit Line (NLL) -- the de facto inter-Korean maritime boundary -- from 2 p.m., according to the Marine Corps. "The firing drills, which are defensive in nature, involved K-9 self-propelled howitzers and Chunmoo multiple rocket launchers and a total of 390 rounds were fired," the armed forces said in a notice to reporters. The Marine Corps said it will continue to conduct regular maritime firing drills in the area to enhance its artillery operations capabilities and maintain a firm military readiness posture. Thursday's exercise came about three months after South Korea fully suspended the 2018 inter-Korean tension reduction accord on June 4 in response to the North's trash-balloon campaign and GPS jamming attacks. The accord calls for setting up a maritime buffer zone and banning such drills to reduce cross-border tensions. With the suspension of the pact, South Korea resumed live-fire drills on the border islands for the first time in seven years on June 26. North Korea has never recognized the NLL, demanding that it be re-drawn further south. Waters near the NLL have been a flashpoint between the two Koreas, where three bloody naval skirmishes took place in 1999, 2002 and 2009. Source: Yonhap News Agency