N. Korea fires 100 artillery shots into S. Korea's maritime 'buffer zone': JCS

SEOUL, Nov. 2 (Yonhap) -- North Korea has fired around 100 artillery shells into the East Sea after launching at least 17 ballistic and other missiles within just seven hours on Wednesday, according to South Korea's military.

The Joint Chiefs of Staff (JCS) said the North launched four short-range ballistic missiles (SRBMs) into the Yellow Sea from North Pyongan Province at around 6:51 a.m.

The JCS also detected the North's firing of three more SRBMs from a site in or around the eastern coastal city of Wonsan at around 8:51 a.m. One of them landed near South Korea's territorial waters, further raising tensions around the inter-Korean border. It marked the first time since the two Koreas' division that the North sent a ballistic missile southward past the NLL.

Starting at 9:12 a.m., Pyongyang staged a series of over 10 missile launches, including those presumed to be SRBMs and surface-to-air missiles, from various sites into the East Sea and Yellow Sea, the JCS added.

The South Korean military also spotted more than 100 artillery shells lobbed from Kosong County, Kangwon Province, into the eastern buffer zone set under an inter-Korean military agreement signed on Sept. 19, 2018 to reduce border tensions, at around 1:27 p.m.

South Korea has sent a formal warning message to North Korea, urging the recalcitrant Kim Jong-un regime to immediately cease all provocations, it said.

julesyi@yna.co.kr
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