Yeonpyeong

Korean spelling
Korean alphabet :	연평도
Hanja :	延坪島
Revised Romanization :	Yeonpyeongdo
McCune-Reischauer :	Yŏnpyŏngdo

Map of the Yeonpyeong archipelago

Location map (Yeonpyeong 3)

Yeonpyeong is a group of islands belonging to South Korea in the Yellow Sea , about 80 km west of the city of Incheon and about 12 km south of the North Korean province of Hwanghae-namdo . The main island is Daeyeonpyeong with an area of 7.01 km² and more than 1600 inhabitants; it is also called yeonpyeong in common parlance . The second inhabited island is Soyeonpyeong with an area of only 0.24 km².

The Yeonpyeong-myeon archipelago forms with other islands (including the Baengnyeongdo ) the district ( Gun ) Ongjin and belongs to the urban area ( Gwangyeoksi ) of Incheon . In the 1953 Armistice Agreement, Yeonpyeong-do was assigned to South Korea. The main island is about 3 km south of the Northern Limit Line , the maritime border drawn unilaterally by the United Nations between North and South Korea.

The South Korean armed forces have stationed 1,000 soldiers on the island. Due to its location, the island has already been the site of clashes between the North and South Korean navies three times in the past (1999, 2002 and 2010) .

Bombardment of Yeonpyeong

On November 23, 2010, the North Korean army fired more than 200 grenades on the island. Two soldiers and two civilians were killed and at least a dozen people were injured, including civilians, and more than 50 houses were damaged. The official North Korea News Agency ( KCNA ) said the attack was a response to target practice by the South Korean Navy in the Yellow Sea.