On August 10 a brief firefight broke out between North and South Korea in the West (Yellow) Sea. The initial South Korean news-agency report was hedged:
South Korea fired three shots towards the tense western sea border after one North Korean shell apparently fell near there, the military here said. The Joint Chiefs of Staff (JCS) said the South's Navy heard North Korea fire three artillery shots toward the Northern Limit Line (NLL) around 1 p.m. and then responded around 2 p.m. with three warning shots. ‘We estimated that one North Korean shell dropped near the NLL,’ a JCS official said. “We haven’t noticed any particular movements in the North Korean military but we’re maintaining a defense posture."
It is not clear if any of the original rounds fell south of the NLL or where South Korea’s shots fell. A few more rounds were exchanged later in the day. Washington and Seoul were quick to accuse North Korea of a provocation. An annual joint U.S.-South Korean exercise to begin this week was scarcely mentioned.
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