North shoots artillery rounds into Yellow Sea

Passengers at Seoul Station in central Seoul on Monday morning watch a news broacast about artillery shorts fired by North Korea the previous evening. [YONHAP]

North Korea fired artillery rounds from its western coast into the Yellow Sea on Sunday evening amid rising tensions on the peninsula over the regime's possible preparations for a nuclear test.

Seoul’s Joint Chiefs of Staff (JCS) sent an alert to reporters that it detected “trajectories” believed to be artillery shots from around 6:21 p.m. to 6:37 p.m.

The message contained no additional details, such as the exact number of shots launched or their origin, but a South Korean defense official who spoke to the JoongAng Ilbo on condition of anonymity said that the military detected two trajectories.

According to the official, the military is analyzing whether the shots were part of routine training or testing. The North Korean military began summer training drills this month.

“South Korea and the United States are working in close cooperation to maintain a posture of thorough readiness while bolstering our military’s surveillance and vigilance capabilities,” the JCS said.

The JCS added that the mortars fired by the North were between 122mm and 240mm in diameter.

The presidential National Security Office (NSO) held a meeting shortly after the artillery shots were detected to review the military’s readiness posture. The meeting was presided over by National Security Adviser Kim Sung-han.

The presidential office said that the NSO is keeping a close watch on the possibility of additional launches by the North.

The JCS came under criticism for not reporting artillery rounds fired by the North until about 10 hours after they took place on June 12, a week after the regime launched eight ballistic missiles into the East Sea.

South Korean defense officials also came under fire in late January for reacting a day late to a North Korean cruise missile test — after media outlets had already reported their occurrence.

Late acknowledgements of North Korean weapons tests, such as the January cruise missile test, have raised questions about the South Korean military’s readiness and detection capabilities.

The latest artillery rounds fired by the North came amid persistent warnings by U.S. and South Korean officials that the regime has completed preparations to conduct its seventh nuclear test. Pyongyang has also conducted 18 missile tests this year alone, including one suspected intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM) test in May.

The artillery shots also came after six U.S. F-35A radar-evading fighters arrived in South Korea last week to conduct allied drills.

Their arrival marked the first public deployment of America’s stealth warplanes in Korea in five years.

The joint air force drills are just one of several being conducted by the allies to signal their readiness against a major North Korean provocation.

South Korea, the United States and Japan are also scheduled to conduct a combined missile detection and tracking exercise, known as Pacific Dragon, near Hawaii in August to guard against North Korean missiles.

BY MICHAEL LEE [lee.junhyuk@joongang.co.kr]