SEOUL — On Wednesday, the South Korean Marine Corps resumed large-scale live-fire exercises on the islands of Yeonpyeong and Baengnyeong, marking the first such drills in seven years near the volatile western inter-Korean maritime border.
According to Yonhap News Agency, this resumption violates the 2018 inter-Korean military agreement, which was fully suspended earlier in June. This agreement, established to reduce tensions, had prohibited live-fire exercises near the Northern Limit Line (NLL), the de facto maritime boundary between North and South Korea. The drills included various artillery systems such as K9 howitzers, Chunmoo multiple rocket launcher systems, and Spike anti-tank missiles, with more than 290 live rounds fired. The exercise was planned in response to heightened tensions following a failed ballistic missile test by North Korea earlier the same day. The last full-scale live-fire drill by the Marine Corps before the suspension was in 2017, prior to the signing of the military accord.