North Korea's artillery attack on South Korea's Yeonpyeong Island on Tuesday is a dangerous provocation that must be condemned. The international community should unite and pressure North Korea to refrain from carrying out further provocations. Both Pyongyang and Seoul should exercise self-restraint to prevent escalation.
According to South Korea, on Tuesday afternoon the North fired about 170 shells in the direction of the Northern Limit Line (NLL) set by South Korea in the Yellow Sea. Some 80 shells struck Yeonpyeong Island, killing two South Korean Marines and injuring 10 others. Several dozen houses were destroyed by fire and a number of local residents were injured, two fatally. This is the first time that the North has attacked South Korean land and caused casualties among civilians since the signing of the 1953 armistice that halted the Korean war.
The North launched its attack a day after the South began military drills in the area, which included the firing of artillery in a southerly direction, away from North Korea. The North does not accept the NLL and has set its sea border south of the line.