South Korea claims the North fired shells near their sea border

South Korea’s response to the North’s naval assaults: Implications for U.S. policy goals and re-elected presidency

South Koreans protested at the launching of the North’s satellite. North Korea responded that it would deploy powerful weapons at the border and won’t abide by the 2018 deal any longer. South Korea accused North Korea of reviving guard posts that it dismantled under the deal.

The Koreas’ poorly marked western sea boundary was the site for bloody naval skirmishes between the Koreas in 1999, 2002 and 2009. The North’s alleged torpedoing of a South Korean warship killed 46 South Korean sailors in March 2010, and the North’s artillery bombardment of Yeonpyeong Island killed four South Koreans in November 2010.

North Korea’s military said it was in response to the South’s military training. If South Korea engages in provocations, North Korea will launch a tough counteraction, it warned.

The Joint Chiefs of Staff said South Korea will take corresponding military steps if North Korea continues artillery drills that pose a threat to South Korean nationals. The statement didn’t say whether South Korea would conduct its own drills.

South Korea’s Joint Chiefs of Staff said North Korea fired more than 200 rounds in the waters north of their western sea boundary on Friday morning. It was North Korea’s first front-line maritime firing exercise in about a year.

Since 2022, North Korea has conducted more than 100 missile tests, many of them nuclear-capable weapons targeting the U.S. mainland and South Korea. The U.S. and South Korea have responded by expanding their military training, which North Korea calls an invasion rehearsal.

Kim said at the party meeting that South Korea must not be considered as a partner for reconciliation or unification. In the event of a conflict, he ordered the military to use all available means, including nuclear weapons.

Kim thinks a boost in military capability will increase his chances of getting U.S. concessions if Trump is re-elected. Kim promised to launch three additional military spy satellites this year in his speech at the ruling party meeting.

Earlier Friday, North Korea’s state media said Kim ordered authorities to increase production of mobile launch vehicles for missiles during a visit to a munitions factory. Kim said the role of the factory producing transport erector launchers, or TELs, is “very important” in bolstering North Korea’s national defense because of a looming military showdown with its rivals.

Yang Uk, an analyst at Seoul’s Asan Institute for Policy Studies, said that North Korea is estimated to have more than 200 such launch vehicles, about 20-30 of them likely for intercontinental ballistic missiles designed to attack the U.S. mainland.

The Russia-Ukraine war is a good opportunity for North Korea. It’s likely operating its weapons factories at their full capacities to satisfy Russia, a big customer,” Yang said.