North Korea Fires Artillery Near Border With South Korea

North Korea fired 200 rounds of artillery into waters near its disputed western sea border with South Korea on Friday, a move that prompted the South’s military to ask residents on two nearby islands to take shelter.

The shells fell north of the disputed border, known as the Northern Limit Line, between 9 and 11 a.m., and caused no damage, South Korean officials said.

The South’s military accused the North of “threatening peace and raising tensions” and vowed to take “corresponding measures.” Hours after, it said that it responded to the North’s provocation by firing its own artillery shells into waters south of the disputed border.

But as the South Korean military prepared to conduct a similar firing exercise in border waters, it asked people on the islands of Yeonpyeong and Baengnyeong to seek shelter beginning at noon, island officials said. Ferries that were scheduled to leave from Incheon, a port west of Seoul, the South Korean capital, to the islands on Friday afternoon were also canceled.

“The military here asked us to help evacuate people in case the North might fire back when it started its own drill,” said Ji Young-hyeon, a government official on Yeonpyeong. “So we are sending out a broadcast every 30 minutes asking people to take shelter.”

People living on the island are wary of North Korean provocations, especially after the North launched an artillery and rocket barrage on the island in 2010 that killed two South Korean civilians and two marines there. In retaliation, the South pounded the North Korean shore across the water with artillery.

Residents on the islands have grown accustomed to orders to leave their homes and evacuate to underground shelters. The islands are dotted with underground and concrete