On February 19, the South Korean Joint Chiefs of Staff (JCS) announced that the Marine Corps conducted live-fire drills on islands near the inter-Korean maritime border to the west.
 |
| K9 self-propelled howitzers participate in a live-fire exercise on an unidentified border island in the Yellow Sea, Feb. 19. (Source: Yonhap) |
The regular drill, involving K9 self-propelled artillery, took place on Baengnyeong Island and Yeonpyeong Island near the Northern Limit Line (NLL) - the de facto inter-Korean maritime border - amid heightened tensions over North Korea's missile launches this year, Yonhap news agency reported.
"Our military... will continue to enhance the combat readiness of western border island units through regular live-fire exercises at sea in the coming time," the JCS statement said.
According to the JCS, the exercises are defensive in nature, taking place under the supervision of international observers and in compliance with the 1950-1953 Korean War Armistice Agreement.
The Marines have been conducting regular live-fire drills since June last year, when Seoul completely suspended the inter-Korean military agreement in response to Pyongyang's campaign of launching garbage balloons and efforts to jam GPS signals around the NLL.
The waters near the NLL are a flashpoint between the two Koreas, where three bloody naval clashes took place in 1999, 2002 and 2009.
Source: https://baoquocte.vn/han-quoc-dua-quan-den-gan-duong-bien-gioi-tren-bien-voi-trieu-tien-tap-tran-ban-dan-that-304871.html
Comment (0)