Tension is rising between North and South Korea, with the situation in danger of spiraling out of control. Pyongyang launched more artillery shells into maritime “buffer zones” to the east and west of the country. This was reported by the South Korean army, quoted by Yonhap news agency, according to which the beginning of the exercise took place at 17:00 today, local time, 10:00 in the morning in Italy, when the soldiers of the Kim Jong regime shot around eighty shots towards the East Sea, or Sea of Japan, while twenty minutes later about two hundred shots were heard towards the Yellow Sea.
We are in the “buffer zones” north of the North Limit Line, in practice it is the maritime border between South and North established on the basis of an agreement in 2018, the year of the thaw between the two Koreas. According to Pyomgyang, the missiles are the result of “strong military countermeasures” taken in response to an apparent South Korean artillery exercise held yesterday. Kim’s regime speaks of a “severe warning” to the South Korean Armed Forces that exacerbate tensions with “reckless actions”.
The dangerous skirmishes follow North Korea’s launch of a ballistic missile into the Sea of Japan, condemned by the South Korean Security Council and Japanese Foreign Minister Yoshimasa Hayashi, who called it “totally unacceptable”. And the airspace violation recorded yesterday. Interested observers are the United States pointing the finger at Pyongyang’s refusal to engage in the denuclearization dialogue: The United States has also imposed a new round of sanctions on North Korea following the launch of the IRBM on October 4th, aimed at the fuel supply.
From the point of view of sanctions, the South Korean government has re-imposed them against Pyongyang, inserting fifteen individuals and sixteen entities on its blacklist and others may arrive in the coming days. Kim Jong-un reiterated, in turn, that he does not feel the “need” to open a dialogue with Seoul and Washington and announced that “all military countermeasures” will be taken to deal with the “unstable” situation between the two Koreas. On the ballistic missile exercise, he finally said that the country’s nuclear-fighting forces are “fully prepared for a real war.”
Source: IL Tempo
Emma Fitzgerald is an accomplished political journalist and author at The Nation View. With a background in political science and international relations, she has a deep understanding of the political landscape and the forces that shape it.
