Lord Bourne of Aberystwyth – 2014 Parliamentary Question to the Foreign and Commonwealth Office

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Lord Bourne of Aberystwyth on 2014-04-02.

To ask Her Majesty’s Government what steps they are taking in relation to tensions between North and South Korea following North Korea’s artillery shelling and detonation near the border between those countries.

Baroness Warsi

On 31 March 2014, during a pre-planned and pre-advised live-fire exercise, a small number of artillery shells from the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea landed in waters south of the Northern Limit Line (NLL) in the Yellow Sea. The Republic of Korea military responded with its own artillery fire into waters on the northern side of the NLL. There were no reported casualties.

We have been monitoring the situation closely and are in contact with international partners. The situation is currently calmer but tensions remain high. In a Written Ministerial Statement on 31 March, the Minister of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, my right hon. Friend the Member for East Devon (Mr Swire), urged both sides to exercise restraint and not to retaliate further.