North Korea’s shelling across sea border planned provocation

A South Korean military official says North Korea deliberatelyfired artillery rounds across the Yellow Sea border on Monday to provoke the South.The official said on Wednesday that the North fired around 100 shells toward SouthKorea’s Baengnyeong Island near the Northern Limit Line (NLL), the sea borderseparating the two Koreas, as part of a planned provocation, according to Korea’s(KBS WORLD) website.The official said the North has been conducting live-fire drills since last fall, and ithas often made provocations at sites where it carried out drills. The official addedthe South is closely watching the North’s recent military drills that target the South’sguard posts and general outposts.Another military official said the North carried out live-fire drills near the NLL tocalculate from which spots and from what angle it can hit warships south of theborder.