(2nd LD) S. Korea orders civilians on western border islands to evacuate over N.K.'s artillery firing

▲ Evacuated residents wait in a shelter on the western border island of Yeonpyeong on Jan. 5, 2023, as North Korea fired hundreds of artillery shells off its west coast, in this photo provided by a reader. (PHOTO NOT FOR SALE) (Yonhap)

▲ This file photo, taken from an observatory on Yeonpyeong Island near the Northern Limit Line, the de facto sea border with North Korea in the Yellow Sea, on Nov. 30, 2023, shows the landscape of a village in the North Korean town of Ongjin. (Yonhap)

(2nd LD) S Korea-evacuation order

(2nd LD) S. Korea orders civilians on western border islands to evacuate over N.K.'s artillery firing

(ATTN: UPDATES with lifting of evacuation order; CHANGES photo)

INCHEON, Jan. 5 (Yonhap) -- Civilians on the western border islands of Yeonpyeong and Baengnyeong were ordered to evacuate to shelters Friday, officials said, as North Korea fired hundreds of artillery shells off its west coast.

The emergency evacuation order was given at 12:02 p.m. and again at 12:30 p.m. on Yeongpyeong at the request of the South Korean military, according to the Ongjin County office in the western port city of Incheon.

A similar alert was issued for the western border island of Baengnyeong around the same time.

South Korea's military said it detected the artillery firings from Jangsan Cape and Deungsan Cape, both in the North's southwestern coastal areas, from 9:00 a.m. to 11 a.m.

"We announced the evacuation after receiving a call from a military unit saying it was carrying out a maritime strike on Yeongpyeong Island as it has a situation with a North Korean provocation," a county official said, adding no casualties were reported.

The evacuation orders on both islands were lifted at 3:46 p.m., nearly 3 1/2 hours after the alert went off, according to the Ongjin County office.

A total of 495 residents fled for safety on the western island of Yeonpyeong, home to some 2,100 people, and 269 people among some 4,800 residents on the island of Baengnyeong took shelter during the order.

Three passenger ferries, scheduled to shuttle from Incheon, Yeonpyeong and Baengnyeong at 1 p.m., were moored due to the evacuation order, according to officials.

A passenger ship bound for Baengnyeong from the Incheon port was sent back 50 minutes after departure, and the coastal guard had six fishing boats that set out from the five border islands in the West Sea return to port.

The shells fired by North Korea splashed into the maritime buffer zone north of the Northern Limit Line (NLL), the de facto maritime border. The buffer zone was established under an inter-Korean military accord signed on Sept. 19, 2018, to reduce border tensions.

Last November, North Korea unilaterally scrapped the accord after Seoul partially suspended the deal in protest of Pyongyang's successful launch of a military spy satellite.

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