North Korea Claims Fake Artillery Sounds Fooled South

North Korea mocked the South on Sunday for its alarm over Pyongyang’s alleged firing of some 60 live artillery rounds the day before, saying the drills were staged.

Kim Yo Jong, the sister of the isolated regime’s supreme leader, said the shelling report by Seoul was actually detonated explosive powder meant to simulate the sound of 130-millimeter rounds.

The situation on Korean Peninsula—already tense after last year’s spate of intercontinental ballistic missile tests, spy satellite launches and a canceled military pact—further intensified on Friday when the South accused its neighbor of firing some 200 artillery shells along their de facto maritime boundary, prompting evacuation orders on two nearby South Korean islands.

The General Staff of North Korea’s military, the Korean People’s Army, said its forces had carried out a “deceptive operation simulating shelling” on Saturday, followed the next day by the actual discharge of a total 88 shells into waters near the Yellow Sea dividing line, which was established under the now-abandoned accord.

The statement said the drills had not exposed the South to any risk.

“The KPA did not fire even a single shell into the relevant waters [on Saturday],” Kim, who is also deputy director of the one-party state’s propaganda department, said in a statement carried but North Korean state media.

“The [South Korean] military gangsters quickly took the bait we threw,” she said.

The alleged “deceptive operation” was to test the accuracy of the South’s detection abilities, Kim boasted. “The result was clear, as we expected.”

North would immediately launch a military strike against its southern neighbor in the event of “even a slight provocation,” she warned.

Also on Sunday, North Korea’s state broadcaster KCTV ran bulletin that it said showed North Korean troops preparing to trigger explosives, coupled with separate shots of blasts in a training field.

South Korea’s Joint Chiefs of Staff derided Kim’s statement as “comedy-like, vulgar propaganda” aimed at eroding South Koreans’ trust in their military.

Seoul’s embassy in Washington, D.C., did not immediately respond to Newsweek‘s request for comment.

Animosity between Seoul and Pyongyang has been on the rise since the latter successfully launched its maiden spy satellite in late November. Kim Jong Un has since pledged to deploy three additional spy satellites into orbit this year.

The launch prompted South Korea to partially suspend the landmark 2018 military accord aimed at easing tensions between the two nations, with Seoul announcing the resumption of surveillance flights over the 2.5-mile-wide demilitarized zone separating the two countries.

North Korea retaliated by withdrawing entirely from the agreement, sparking reciprocal threats of destruction in the event either side is provoked.

Despite the cessation of active hostilities over seven decades ago, the Korean Peninsula remains technically at war, and no peace treaty has ever been formalized.

South Korea maintains a Mutual Defense Treaty with the United States and hosts approximately 28,500 forward-deployed American troops.

The U.S. has recently intensified efforts to showcase support for its ally amidst North Korea’s aggressive stance, dispatching a nuclear-armed ballistic missile submarine to South Korea last July for the first time in forty years.

Washington, along with treaty ally Tokyo, also sent fighter jets and a nuclear-capable B-52 bomber to participate in the first U.S.-South Korea-Japan trilateral aerial drill in October.

Last month, Kim tested his regime’s most advanced intercontinental ballistic missile—capable of delivering a nuclear strike on the U.S. mainland—the three allies flew a bomber escort mission near the peninsula in a pointed message to Pyongyang.

U.S. President Joe Biden has said a North Korea nuclear attack against the U.S. or its allies would “result in the end” of Kim’s rule.