South Korea conducts drills near North Korea border
The South Korean military has conducted live-fire artillery exercises in a town near the border with North Korea for the first time in seven years.
The manoeuvres took place Monday around the Imjin River, in the city of Paju, about 30km northeast of Seoul and adjacent to the town of Panmunjom, at the 38th parallel, the so-called demilitarised zone (DMZ) between the two Koreas, according to details reported by the local news agency Yonhap on Tuesday.
The South Korean armed forces mobilised 12 K9A1 and six K55A1 self-propelled howitzers for the occasion, which fired around 60 rounds at targets at a US firing range.
The South Korean military said the resumption of live-fire exercises is intended to improve the firepower of its artillery units and their long-range firing capabilities to respond "immediately" to potential North Korean attacks.
This is the first time South Korean troops have conducted such exercises since they were suspended in 2018 following an agreement between Seoul and Pyongyang to cease military activity around their shared border to reduce tensions.
Under the treaty, naval and artillery exercises, as well as regimental-level field exercises, were prohibited within a certain radius around the land and sea borders established in the area, and no-fly zones were even designated around the same areas.
In June 2024, Seoul suspended the treaty in response to the North sending debris balloons and several attempts by Pyongyang to jam its GPS system.
Following the suspension of the agreement, the Marine Corps resumed live-fire exercises along the inter-Korean maritime border in the Yellow Sea (known as the West Sea in both Koreas) in 2024 after eight years. It has now resumed artillery exercises, following other exercises last July that did not involve live fire at the time.
Relations between the two Koreas have gradually worsened in recent years, with Pyongyang ignoring new proposals for dialogue and labelling Seoul its number one enemy.
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