Marines Return Fire After North Korea Shells South Of Disputed Sea Border

South Korean Marines returned artillery fire across a disputed sea border Monday after North Korean shells from a live fire drill fell into the water South of the frontier.

Fortunately, there have been no reports of any injuries, but island South Korean residents spent several hours in shelters during the shelling. Ferry service, which serves as a go-between from the islands to the mainland, were temporally out-of-service. Kang Myeong-sung, speaking from a shelter on Yeonpyeong island, which is in literal sight-distance from North Korean territory, said that he didn’t hear any fighter jets but did hear the artillery fire.

North Korea fired 500 rounds of artillery shells over more than a 3-hour period. While most of the ordinance fell North of the boundary, nearly a fifth — or, about 100 of — fell south of the sea boundary, according to South Korean Defense Ministry spokesman Kim Min-seok.

In response, South Korea fired 300 shells into North Korean waters.

As is usually the case when North Korea shells South Korea, no shells fell on land, but Kim said the North’s artillery bombardment was another provocation meant to gauge Seoul’s security status.

The developments follow an announcement from Pyongyang that it would conduct these military drills, which was widely seen as a sign of frustration by the rogue regime, because they have been unsuccessful at extorting outside aid.

This isn’t the first time in recent history the western sea boundary has been the scene of shelling, even ending in several deadly naval exchanges. Back in March 2010, a South Korean warship was sunk by a torpedo attack that killed 46 sailors. Of course, North Korea denies responsibility for the sinking, but experts . And in November 2010, a similar North Korean artillery bombardment killed four South Koreans on Yeonpyeong.

The Korean Peninsula remains in a technical state of war because the 1950-53 Korean War ended with an armistice, not a peace treaty. About 28,500 American troops are deployed in South Korea to deter potential aggression from North Korea.