North Korea fires artillery barrage for second day in a row amid tensions over South Korea-US drills

North Korea’s frontline army fired a heavy artillery blitz into the sea for the second consecutive day in what is being seen as a tit-for-tat response to “warn” against multiday South Korea-US live-fire drills.

The North Korean army expanded “combat emergency alerts” to units at all levels and beefed up surveillance after it detected multiple rocket launchers and Howitzers near its frontline, a spokesman for the general staff of the Korean People’s Army (KOA) said in state-runVoice of Korea (VOK) on Tuesday.

“The enemy side must immediately stop provocative military actions in the area close to the frontline,” the statement said.

Pyongyang’s live-fire drills ran into the second day after its military said it gave urgent order to prepare for a “rapid counterattack”, according to state media KCNA.

It said its frontline units fired more than 130 live shells towards the eastern and western coast on Monday.

South Korea conducted exercises to test multiple rocket launching systems and Howitzers in two separate testing grounds in the Cheorwon region.

North Korea said it was a “tit-for-tat warning” after dozens of projectiles supposed to be the shells of multiple rocket launchers were fired near its Kangwon Province.

“The KPA General Staff makes it clear once again that it will settle accounts with all provocative actions of the enemy one by one and will always counter them with staunch and overwhelming military action,” the statement added.

South Korea’s Joint Chiefs of Staff (JCS) denounced North Korea for splashing shells into the maritime buffer zone of a de facto border, calling it a violation of the 2018 inter-Korean military accord.

“The artillery firings into the eastern and western maritime buffer zones are a clear violation of the Sept 19 military accord and we strongly urge the North to immediately halt them,” the JCS said.

North Korea’s sabre-rattling comes after the US and its allies, Japan and South Korea slapped additional sanctions on North Korean senior officials and institutions associated with the country’s recent missile tests.

Tensions have been soaring in the Korean peninsula after Pyongyang increased the frequency of its missile tests, including several banned intercontinental ballistic missiles.

North Korea has said the launches are its angry response to US and South Korean drills that it views as rehearsals for a potential invasion.