North Korea fires artillery shells towards South's border island

North Korea has fired more than 200 rounds of artillery shells off its west coast, towards the South's Yeonpyeong island, Seoul's military has said.

Immediately after, South Korea issued an evacuation warning to civilians on the island - although they did not confirm if it was connected.

The South has condemned the move, calling it a "provocative act".

In 2010, North Korean artillery fired scores of times on Yeonpyeong island, killing four people.

The artillery shells fired on Friday, between 09:00 to 11:00 local time (00:00 to 02:00 GMT) did not enter South Korean territory as they all landed in the buffer zone between the two countries.

South Korea's Joint Chiefs of Staff said the incident caused "no damage to our people or military", but added that the act "threatened peace on the Korean peninsula and raises tensions".

The latest incident comes months after North Korea fully suspended a military deal with the South aimed at lowering tensions.

Afterwards, Pyongyang said it would withdraw all measures "taken to prevent military conflict in all spheres including ground, sea and air", and deploy "more powerful armed forces and new-type military hardware" in the border region.

But North Korea had violated the pact multiple times over the past two years, by launching missiles and firing artillery rounds into the sea in the South's direction. The last time North Korea fired artillery shells into the sea was in December 2022, with nine such incidents happening in that year alone.

Yeonpyeong island, home to a military base and a small civilian population of about 2,000 people, lies 3km (2 miles) from the disputed maritime border in the Yellow Sea and 12km from the North Korean coast.

It has been the scene of inter-Korean naval clashes over the years.