S. Korea fires shells into North’s waters

People living on a front-line South Korean island said they were evacuated to shelters during the exchange.

No shells from either side were fired at any land or military installations, South Korea’s Joint Chiefs of Staff said.

Kang Myeong-sung, speaking from Yeonpyeong island, in sight of North Korean territory, said anxious islanders were huddled together in shelters. He said he did not see any fighter jets, but could hear the boom of artillery fire.

In 2010, North Korean artillery killed four South Koreans on Yeonpyeong. The exchange of fire followed Pyongyang’s unusual announcement that it would conduct the live-fire drills, a move seen as an expression of its frustration at making little progress in its recent push to win outside aid.

The North has in recent weeks increased threatening rhetoric and conducted a series of rocket and ballistic missile launches that are considered acts of protest against annual springtime military exercises by Seoul and Washington.