North Korea fired around 80 artillery shells into a maritime “buffer zone” on Thursday, Seoul announced, following the extension of joint military exercises between South Korea and the United States.
On Thursday, the Pentagon had announced a one-day extension to Saturday of “Storm Watching,” a combined air exercise with South Korea, scheduled to end today.
Shortly after the announcement, the Seoul military detected around 80 artillery shells from the north into a maritime “buffer zone” in the Kumkang area of Kangwon province on the country’s east coast.
The shootings are “a clear violation” of the 2018 inter-Korean agreement, which established these “buffer zones” to reduce tensions between the two sides, South Korea’s Joint Chiefs of Staff said.
North Korea has launched more than 20 missiles in the past two days in response to US and South Korean military exercises that began on Monday.
Ballistic tests carried out on Wednesday included at least 23 missiles as well as around 100 artillery shells that were fired into an eastern maritime buffer zone.
Already this Friday, Japan announced that it will improve the ‘J-Alert’ system, to alert the population about emergencies such as missiles or earthquakes, after the latest missile launches by North Korea, one of which activated this alert on Wednesday in several regions of the country, although no projectile had flown over the archipelago.
Japanese government spokesman Hirokazu Matsuno made the announcement, following recent criticism over the civilian alert system reportedly slow to respond to North Korea’s launch.
“We send the alert as soon as we receive the information, but since we received comments that it should be done even sooner, the related ministries and agencies will work together to improve the system,” Matsuno said.
The ‘J-Alert’ had also been the subject of criticism after it mistakenly issued the alert in nine cities and towns in the Tokyo metropolitan area on October 4 in response to the launch of a North Korean ballistic missile, which flew over the north from Japan. .
In addition to this error, the alert was sent to the population of northern Japan late, only when the North Korean missile was flying over the region and not ten minutes in advance, to allow residents to seek shelter.
Source: TSF
