South Korea announces island residents evacuation due to North Korean provocations

South Korea has announced the evacuation of the island’s residents (GettyImages)

South Korea has announced an evacuation from the island of Yeonpyeong. More than two thousand people live on it, according to Yonhap News.

Representatives of the local administration reported that a DPRK provocation was being prepared. The island is located on the maritime border of North and South Korea.

“We received a message from the military about the situation related to a provocation by North Korea, after which we announced the evacuation,” says a representative of the local administration.

The DPRK fired about 200 artillery shells from the west coast toward the islands of South Korea. As a result of the DPRK’s “provocation,” South Korean civilians and military were not injured, the source says.

The shells landed north of the northern demarcation line, which South Korea considers to be the de facto maritime border. The Yonhap news agency, citing the South Korean military, also indicated that they are taking retaliatory measures.

Yeonpyeong Island

Yeonpyeong Island is a group of South Korean islands in the Yellow Sea, located about 100 km northwest of Seoul. The largest of them, Greater Yeonpyeong, has an area of 7.01 square kilometers and a population of 1300 people.

The Yeonpyeong Islands are of great strategic importance as they are located near the North Korean coast. In 2010, Yeonpyeong Island was subjected to artillery shelling by North Korea. The shelling killed two South Korean marines and two civilians. This incident was the largest military incident on the border of the two Koreas in the last 50 years.