South Korea: Pyongyang again fires shells near shared maritime border

(Patria) - North Korea conducted a new round of artillery drills near the disputed maritime border with South Korea on Saturday, officials in Seoul said, a day after similar North Korean exercises prompted South Korea to respond with its own firing drills in the same area.

The North Korean consecutive firing exercises came after North Korean leader Kim Jong Un repeatedly called for greater war readiness to cope with what he called deepening confrontation led by the United States, AP reported.

South Korea's Joint Chiefs of Staff said in a statement that North Korea fired more than 60 shells into waters north of the western maritime border on Saturday afternoon and called on North Korea to stop actions that increase tensions. It said it would take appropriate military steps if North Korea continues artillery drills that pose a threat to South Korean citizens.

The statement did not say whether South Korea would respond with its own drills. South Korean media reported that South Korea did not conduct firing drills, after the direction of the North Korean shells fired on Saturday was determined to be less provocative than on Friday.

The Korean firing drills were a violation of the 2018 inter-Korean agreement that was meant to ease military tensions on the front line. Signed during a brief period of rapprochement, the agreement calls for a halt to live-fire drills and aerial surveillance in buffer and no-fly zones. But growing animosity over the North's first launch of a military spy satellite in November left the military agreement in abeyance, with both Koreas taking steps to breach the accord.

North Korea on Friday used coastal artillery systems to fire about 200 projectiles, also north of the maritime border, in its first maritime firing drill in a buffer zone in about a year.

In response, South Korea's defense ministry said troops on two border islands fired artillery shells south of the maritime border. Local media reported that South Korea fired 400 shells.