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South Korea conducts artillery drills near maritime border as North ignores proposal for talks

Published: 16 Dec. 2025, 18:56

K9 howitzers are seen during a firing drill held near the Northern Limit Line (NLL) on June 25. [NEWS1]

South Korea’s military conducted live-fire artillery drills near the Northern Limit Line (NLL) on Tuesday, as North Korea continues to ignore Seoul’s proposal for inter-Korean military talks nearly a month after it was issued.

With Pyongyang showing no signs of responding to Seoul’s diplomatic overtures, the South Korean military appears to have judged that there is no reason to suspend previously scheduled exercises.

The Sixth Marine Brigade and Yeonpyeong unit under the Northwest Islands Defense Command carried out a live-fire drill on Tuesday afternoon using K9 self-propelled howitzers at a sea range off the west coast, according to the Marine Corps. The brigade is equipped with K9 howitzers, Chunmoo multiple rocket launchers and Spike anti-tank missiles.

The drill involved firing more than 100 rounds from K9 howitzers at virtual targets located in South Korean waters south of the NLL.

A Marine Corps official said the drill was “a regular, defensive training exercise conducted in our waters south of the NLL,” emphasizing that the exercise was not intended to provoke North Korea.

Tuesday’s exercise marks the third live-fire drill in the northwest islands area since the Lee Jae Myung administration took office. The military previously conducted similar exercises in June off Baengnyeong and Yeonpyeong Islands, and in September, it fired approximately 170 rounds from K9 howitzers at the same sea range.

The Korean Tactical Surface-to-Surface Missile, or KTSSM, is seen during a ceremony at the Gyeryongdae Emergency Landing Strip in Gyeryong, South Chungcheong, on Oct. 4, 2024. [JOONGANG ILBO]

Despite the South Korean government’s efforts to resume dialogue, Pyongyang has remained silent. On Nov. 17, Kim Hong-chul, the director-general for national defense policy at the Ministry of National Defense, formally proposed inter-Korean military talks to prevent accidental clashes and ease tensions, including discussions on establishing a standard for the military demarcation line. As of Tuesday, North Korea had not responded.

North Korea has continued to escalate tensions, including a breach of the MDL on Nov. 19. In response, the South Korean military appears committed to maintaining the live-fire drills that were resumed after the previous Yoon Suk Yeol administration suspended the September 2018 inter-Korean military agreement.

Also on Tuesday, the Defense Acquisition Program Administration announced that it had completed the deployment of the Korean Tactical Surface-to-Surface Missile, or KTSSM, a system designed to precisely strike North Korea’s long-range artillery positions and command facilities in the event of conflict.

The KTSSM is considered a key component of Korea’s pre-emptive strike system, known as Kill Chain, designed to neutralize long-range North Korean artillery threatening the capital region in a short period of time.

The missile system, also known as “Ure” in Korean, or “Thunder,” was developed in response to the North’s shelling of Yeonpyeong Island in November 2010 and has been rolled out to frontline units since February.

This article was originally written in Korean and translated by a bilingual reporter with the help of generative AI tools. It was then edited by a native English-speaking editor. All AI-assisted translations are reviewed and refined by our newsroom.
BY SHIM SEOK-YONG [[email protected]]