North, South Korea Trade Artillery Salvos

By Seonjin Cha - Aug 10, 2011 9:23 AM PT .

North Korea and South Korea traded artillery fire near the countries’ disputed sea border that was the scene of a deadly shelling in November.

North Korea fired a second round into the waters near Yeonpyeong Island yesterday after three South Korean shells were fired into the sea around 2 p.m. local time, Yonhap news reported. Residents of the island heard the salvos, Yonhap’s Korean language service said.

South Korea was responding to an initial salvo from the North an hour earlier, said a defense ministry official who declined to be identified, citing government policy. The defense official said the military wasn’t aware of any drills in the area.

The incident came a month after both nations said they would try to revive multilateral talks on the North’s nuclear- weapons program, signaling an easing of tension between the two rivals that has been an irritant to U.S.-China ties over the past year. The so-called Northern Limit Line dividing the two nations on their western border in the Yellow Sea has been a source of repeated conflict since the 1950-1953 civil war ended in a cease-fire.

“North Korea appears to be provoking the South in a calculated manner to highlight the need for a peace treaty to replace the armistice agreement after the war,â€