North Korea’s ‘Belligerent’ Bombing of South Draws Rebukes

North Korea’s attack on a civilian- populated South Korean island near their disputed border drew rebukes from the U.S. and European governments along with warnings that the exchange of artillery fire threatened regional peace.

North Korea bombed South Korea on Tuesday. According to military officials, North Korea bombed a South Korean island near their disputed western border.The South Korean island is populated, and officials say North Koreans set buildings on fire.

South Korea's YTN television said two people were injured, several houses were on fire and shells were still falling on Yeonpyeong island. The station broadcast pictures of thick columns of black smoke rising from the island.
South Korea scrambled fighter jets and returned artillery fire after North Korea provoked the peninsula's most serious confrontation in decades by lobbing dozens of shells onto Yeonpyeong island, located near the border of both countries on the peninsula's west coast. The shelling killed two South Korean soldiers and wounded at least 14.
The U.S., which stations about 25,000 troops in South Korea, is in contact with Seoul’s government, the statement said.

The countries' western maritime boundary has long been a flash point between the two Koreas. The North does not recognize the border that was unilaterally drawn by the United Nations at the close of the 1950-53 Korean War.