DPRK Retaliates Against Seoul, Launches 80 Artillery Rounds into the Sea

Pyongyang retaliated against Washington and Seoul by firing the barrage of artillery shells into the demilitarized zone in the sea between the Korean Peninsula and Japan.

The Joint Chief of Staffs of the South Korean Army called the artillery firing a “clear violation of the inter-Korean military agreement of September 2018” and demanded that DPRK immediately stop the “acts of hostility.”

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Additionally, the South Korean government deployed 80 fighter jets with high stealth capacity in response to an detection of 180 warplanes belonging to the DPRK.

Pyongyang’s artillery launch was in response to the extension of “Vigilant Storm,” a training period of large-scale joint military exercises between the US and South Korea. This Vigilant Storm, in which some 240 fighters are participating, has gone on from October 31 to November 4.

Pak Jong Chong, secretary of the Central Committee of the North Korean Workers’ Party, said, “The irresponsible decision of the United States and South Korea is pushing the current situation, created by hostile military acts of the allied forces, into an uncontrollable phase.”

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Pyongyang has responded to the threat from Washington and Seoul with increased missile and artillery fire. So far this year, North Korea has launched 81 ballistic missiles 34 times, and fired some 1,100 artillery rounds into open waters south of the Northern Limit Line.

The DPRK regards the joint military exercises as a rehearsal for a potential invasion, warning that if these two countries proceed to carry out the invasion, they will pay the “most horrible price in history.”

Translation: Orinoco Tribune

OT/RQ/SC