South Korea’s Joint Chiefs of Staff said North Korea has been flying balloons carrying trash toward the South in an apparent retaliation to anti-Pyongyang propaganda leaflets flown across the border.
State media described the drill as aimed at demonstrating the strength and diverse attack means of North Korea's nuclear forces amid deepening tensions with the United States and South Korea.
North Korea on Monday test-fired suspected short-range ballistic missiles into the sea, the country's neighbors said, as speculation swirled that it could soon launch a banned satellite into orbit.
Residents of a South Korean island attacked by North Korea in 2010 fear it could become a flashpoint again. They hid in air raid shelters in early January after North Korea conducted artillery drills.
The new round of artillery drills near the two countries' disputed sea boundary came a day after the North's similar exercises prompted South Korea to respond with its own firing drills.
The rival Koreas fired artillery rounds into the sea as part of provocative drills along their disputed sea boundary Friday, in violation of the fragile 2018 inter-Korean agreement.
In a rare admission, North Korean leader Kim Jong Un says his country's birth rate is too low. Experts see no working solution for a looming population crisis.
Since the collapse of nuclear talks between Pyongyang and Washington in 2019, analysts see a major shift in North Korea's foreign relations. It has turned increasingly to Moscow.
South Korea had no military reconnaissance satellites of its own in space and has partially resorted to the United States' spy satellites to monitor moves by North Korea.
The South Korean announcement — which will likely infuriate North Korea — came hours after the North claimed to have placed a military reconnaissance satellite into orbit.
North Korea claimed to have successfully placed a spy satellite into orbit with its third launch attempt this year, demonstrating the nation's determination to build a space-based surveillance system.
Experts point to economic difficulties from prolonged international sanctions, but the closures may signal a possible change in North Korea's foreign policy that is more focused on Moscow and Beijing.
Travis King, who fled to North Korea before being returned home to the United States last month, has been detained by the U.S. military, two officials said Thursday.
At the recently concluded Games, South Korean athletes and journalists said North Koreans refused to engage with them. Some even avoided customary handshakes or photo sessions atop the podium.
