North Korea claims that shells fired during the South's drills violated its territory.
January 01, 2011- South Korea held live-fire military drills off the west coast of the Korean Peninsula that caused North Korea to issue a statement saying that despite “”reckless provocations” they will take no hostile action.
On November 23, The North shelled Yeonpyeong, a flashpoint island at the maritime border between the two divided countries, in response to the South’s military excursions in the Yellow Sea. The attack killed four people and almost led to the two countries declaring war.
“South Korea’s military provocation was a product of their cunning scenario to deliberately lead the DPRK army’s counteraction to driving the situation on the Korean Peninsula to the brink of a war and thus save the U.S. Asia policy and strategy toward the DPRK from bankruptcy,” the official KCNA news agency stated.
Opposite to its previous threats, Pyongyang decided not to strike back to the South because shells fired during 90-minute live-firing drills on Yeonpyeong Island did not land on the North’s shores.
US State Department spokesman Philip Crowley declared, “This is the way countries are supposed to act, the South Korean exercise was defensive in nature. The North Koreans were notified in advance. There was no basis for a belligerent response.”
