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This photo, released by North Korean state media on Oct. 10, shows a military exercise by the North’s tactical nuke operation units. (KCNA/Yonhap)

On Monday, North Korea fired some 130 shells into the eastern and western maritime buffer zones, where artillery fire is prohibited under the Sept. 19 Comprehensive Military Agreement. It has been more than one month since North Korea last violated the agreement on Nov. 3.

South Korea’s Joint Chiefs of Staff announced Monday that they had detected an estimated 130 artillery shells fired from North Korea’s Geumgang County in Kangwon Province and Jangsang Cape in South Hwanghae Province starting at 2:59 pm. The Joint Chiefs added that the shells fell into buffer zones north of the Northern Limit Line (NLL).

Although the shells fell in North Korean waters and not in South Korea’s maritime territory, this still constitutes a violation of the 2018 inter-Korean military agreement.

When working out the Sept. 19 agreement, the two Koreas decided to create buffer zones on either side of the NLL, consisting of the zone north of Sokcho and south of Tongcheon in the East Sea and the zone north of Deokjeok Island and south of Cho Island in the West Sea. Under the agreement, the two sides agreed to cease all live-fire and maritime maneuver exercises within these zones.

According to North Korea, the artillery fire was in response to the South’s ongoing live-fire drills.

“From 08:30 to 15:50 on December 5, dozens of projectiles supposed to be the shells of multiple rocket launchers were fired towards the southeast direction from somewhere around Iphyong-ri, Cholwon County of south Kangwon Province of the enemy side,” a spokesperson for the General Staff of the Korean People's Army said in a statement released on Monday by the Korean Central News Agency.

The spokesperson said that army units on the eastern and western fronts were ordered “to fire more than 130 naval live-shells for ‘tit for tat’ warning between 15:00 and 16:00.”

On Monday, South Korean armed forces began conducting multiple launch rocket system (MLRS) firing drills alongside US Forces Korea at Damteo base, Cheorwon County, Gangwon Province.

North Korea violated the Sept. 19 military agreement 11 times in October and November alone through, among others, firing artillery rounds toward the East Sea from Kumgang County, Kangwon Province on Nov. 3.

“Concerning North Korea’s artillery firing in the East and West Seas, the military issued warnings several times regarding the violation of the Sept. 19 military agreement and called for them to immediately cease provocations,” the South’s Joint Chiefs said.

By Kwon Hyuk-chul, staff reporter

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