South Korea resumes live-fire drills near North's maritime border after 7 years

Latest development comes after North Korea launches suspected ballistic missile into East Sea

ANKARA:

South Korea on Wednesday resumed live-fire drills near the maritime border with North Korea, for the first time in seven years.

The full-scale live-fire drills were held in the islands of Yeonpyeong and Baengnyeong in the Yellow Sea, just south of the Northern Limit Line (NLL) -- the de facto inter-Korean maritime boundary, Seoul-based Yonhap News reported.

During the exercises, the South Korean soldiers fired 290 live rounds into the waters off the islands. It also involved K9 howitzers, Chunmoo multiple rocket launcher systems, and Spike anti-tank missiles.

The last time the South Korean forces held live-fire exercises was in 2017 ahead of the 2018 inter-Korean tension reduction agreement that barred both sides from such activities.

Read also: Probable North Korean hypersonic missile test fails mid-air: Seoul

The agreement that set up a maritime buffer zone around the NLL to ban such drills, among other measures, to reduce cross-border tensions was recently fully suspended by both neighbors.

The latest development also came after North Korea launched a suspected ballistic missile toward the East Sea on Wednesday morning. According to the South Korean military, Pyongyang test-fired a hypersonic missile but it exploded in the air.

On Tuesday, Seoul said South Korea and the US held joint drills aimed at strengthening their combined logistics capabilities.

The US, South Korea and Japan also plan to hold the first-ever trilateral multidomain exercises, dubbed Freedom Edge, which will be held later this month.

The USS Theodore Roosevelt already arrived on the peninsula ahead of the planned exercises.