US State Department spokesman Matthew Miller said: “We call on the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea to refrain from further provocative and destabilizing actions and return to diplomacy,” using North Korea’s official name.
Earlier, South Korea announced it had asked civilians to evacuate the islands of Yeonpyeong and Pangyeondo after North Korea fired nearly 200 artillery shells off its western coast.
A Defense Ministry official in Seoul said at a news conference: “North Korea launched about 200 missiles near Yeonpyeong Island.”
Local officials on Yeonpyeong told Agence France-Presse that authorities asked civilians to evacuate the island, located about 10 kilometers from North Korea, indicating that this measure was “precautionary.”
South Korea’s Yeonpyeong Island is located in the Yellow Sea, about 80 kilometers west of Incheon and 12 kilometers south of the coast of North Korea’s Hwanghae Province.
In November 2010, North Korea fired 170 artillery shells at Yeonpyeong Island, killing 4 people, including 2 civilians.
This was the first North Korean attack on a civilian area since the Korean War, which lasted from 1950 to 1953.
Relations between the two Koreas are currently at one of their lowest levels in decades.
2024-01-05 19:26:29
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