North Korea fired hundreds of artillery shells into the East and West Seas on Friday afternoon, which the South Korean military calls a violation of an inter-Korean military accord.

Seoul's Joint Chiefs of Staff (JCS) said on Friday evening that it detected the North firing some 90 artillery shells into the East Sea from the Jangjon area in Kangwon Province between 5 and 6:30 p.m.

The North also fired around 90 and 210 shells respectively from two coastal West Sea areas, Haeju Bay and a site west of Jangsan Cape, between 5:20 and 7 p.m., according to the JCS. The shelling amounts to some 400 rounds in total.

The JCS believes the shells fell into buffer zones north of the Northern Limit Line, which were set under a 2018 cross-border agreement on reducing military tensions, but that none had landed in South Korean waters.

The South Korean military sent warning messages several times, through which it pointed to the North's violation of the agreement and urged the regime to stop the provocations.

The JCS said the continued provocation undermines peace and stability not only on the Korean Peninsula but also in the international community, and called on Pyongyang to immediately cease such acts.