South Korea accuses North Korea of firing hundreds of artillery shells near disputed border area

South Korea accused North Korea of firing hundreds of artillery shells near its disputed sea boundary for the third straight day as the North pledges further military action in response to any provocation.

South Korea’s Joint Chiefs of Staff on Sunday claimed North Korea fired off over 90 rounds near the country’s western sea boundary with the North, the Associated Press reported. The South warned of an overwhelming response if the North does not stop halt the firings, the news wire added.

Kim Yo Jung, the sister of the North’s leader Kim Jong Un, said Sunday the Korean People’s Army (KPA) detonated blasting powder, which simulated the sound of its coastal artillery, in a test of the South Korean military’s detection abilities.

She maintained the North did not fire a “single shell” into the disputed waters.

“The result was clear as we expected. They misjudged the blasting sound as the sound of gunfire and conjectured it as a provocation,” Kim said in a statement issued by state media KCNA, adding later, “The ridiculous behavior of these puppets in military uniform is nothing new today.”

Kim reiterated the North will “launch an immediate military strike” if the South “makes even a slight provocation,” calling the South “gangsters.”

“I cannot but say that [South Korean] people are very pitiful as they entrust ‘security’ to such blind persons and offer huge taxes to them,” she said. “It is better 10 times to entrust security to a dog with a developed sense of hearing and smell.”

In the wake of the North’s firings last Friday, South Korea directed troops on border islands to fire artillery rounds near the sea boundary. The shells landed at the buffer zone between the two countries, known as the Demilitarized Zone (DMZ). The area was created under a 2018 agreement that required the two Koreas to dismantle or disarm several guard posts and created a no-fly zone at the border and a ban on aerial reconnaissance and live-fire exercises.

Tensions between the two Koreas have spiked in recent months as the North continues missile tests and the South expands military training with the U.S. The recent breaches of the 2018 agreement put the deal at risk, with experts warning the North will boost weapons tests in the coming months, the AP reported.