South Korea has ordered civilians on an island near the border with North Korea to evacuate to shelters, after accusing Pyongyang of firing off hundreds of artillery shells as part of a military “provocation.”
The evacuation order was issued twice on Friday afternoon by local authorities, Yonhap News reported, noting that it came amid “apparent signs of a military provocation by North Korea.”
“We announced the evacuation after receiving a call from a military unit saying it was carrying out a maritime strike on Yeongpyeong Island as it has a situation with a North Korean provocation,” an unnamed official was quoted as saying by Yonhap.
Seoul’s Joint Chiefs of Staff (JCS) said later that North Korea launched around 200 artillery shells off its west coast on Friday morning. The projectiles landed in a maritime buffer zone established under a 2018 deal between the two Koreas, though Pyongyang has since withdrawn from the agreement.