At approximately 1900 EST, North Korea fired about 170 artillery shells into the 2018 Buffer Zone. 130 shells were fired into the Yellow Sea and 40 were fired into the Sea of Japan. This is in addition to the aircraft deployment and ballistic missile launch earlier today.

South Korea has now sent a notice to North Korea through a military hotline that the DPRK’s artillery drills overnight were “a breach” of the 2018 inter-Korean military agreement, according to Seoul’s defense ministry.

On 1 November 2018, buffer zones were established across the DMZ by the North and South Korean militaries. In compliance with the Comprehensive Military Agreement which was signed at the September 2018 inter-Korean summit, the buffer zone helps ensure that both North and South Korea will effectively ban hostility on land, air, and sea. Both Koreas are prohibited from conducting live-fire artillery drills and regiment-level field maneuvering exercises or those by bigger units within 5 kilometers of the Military Demarcation Line (MDL). The buffer zones stretch from the north of Deokjeok Island to the south of Cho Island in the West Sea and the north of Sokcho city and south of Tongchon County in the East (Yellow) Sea.