<div style="text-align: justify; "><span style="font-size: 1rem;"><b>South Korea on Wednesday criticised North Korea for unleashing a fresh artillery barrage into waters off its east and west coasts, targeting a maritime "buffer zone" set up in 2018 to reduce tensions.</b></span><br></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br></div><div style="text-align: justify; ">Pyongyang has dramatically ramped up missile launches and military exercises in recent weeks, as Seoul and Washington say North Korean leader Kim Jong Un is close to conducting what would be his country's seventh nuclear test.</div><div style="text-align: justify; "><br></div><div style="text-align: justify; ">Roughly 250 rounds were launched late Tuesday, South Korea's Joint Chiefs of Staff (JCS) said, calling it a "clear violation" of the 2018 agreement.</div><div style="text-align: justify; "><br></div><div style="text-align: justify;">"We strongly urge North Korea to immediately halt its actions," the JCS said in a statement.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br></div><div style="text-align: justify;">"North Korea's continued provocations are actions that undermine peace and stability of the Korean Peninsula and the international community," it added.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Pyongyang on Wednesday said the barrage was intended to counter the "enemy's war drill against the North" along the border.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br></div><div style="text-align: justify;">South Korea's military "fired dozens of shells of multiple rocket launchers in the forefront area... from 9:55 to 17:22 on Oct. 18," a spokesman for the General Staff of the Korean People's Army said in a statement carried by the official KCNA news agency.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br></div><div style="text-align: justify;">"KPA units on the east and west fronts conducted a threatening, warning fire toward the east and west seas on the night of Oct. 18, as a powerful military countermeasure."</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br></div><div style="text-align: justify;">The North also fired artillery rounds into the military buffer zones last week. AFP</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br></div><div style="text-align: justify; ">bnbd24/kh</div>