Marines hold fire drills in West Sea

The Marines on Monday carried out live-fire drills with coastal guns on islands in the Yellow Sea, officials said.

The Joint Chiefs of Staff and the Korea Hydrographic and Oceanographic Administration said the Marine units on the Yellow Sea islands of Baengnyeong and Yeonpyeong held shooting drills for about two hours starting at 10 a.m. Monday. The units used K-9 self-propelled howitzers, 20-millimeter Vulcans and 81-millimeter mortars.

Officials said the JCS notified the KHOA of the exercise schedule last Monday, and the KHOA posted a warning on its Web site against vessels passing through these waters.

Military officials said the Marines fired thousands of rounds southward, and there wasn’t any particular reaction from North Korea.

“These exercises were held to test the performances of guns on Yellow Sea islands and to help troops hone their quick response capabilities in contingencies,” one JCS official explained. “They were regular drills usually held after the fishing season is over.”

Marine units on the two islands notified their residents of the planned exercises on Sunday and told them to take refuge in their bomb shelters during emergencies, officials added.

Both Baengnyeong and Yeonpyeong lie just south of the Northern Limit Line, a de facto maritime border drawn by the U.N. forces at the end of the 1950-53 Korean War. Waters near the NLL have been the site of deadly naval skirmishes and armed provocations by North Korea.

The North shelled Yeonpyeong in November last year, killing two Marines and two civilians. Pyongyang refuses to recognize the NLL, and Seoul has rejected the North’s demand that it be drawn farther south.
 

(Yonhap News)