North and South Korea traded verbal volleys Thursday, a day after an artillery exchange in waters near their Yellow Sea border caused tensions to spike.North Korea, in a statement released on its official news agency, flatly denied South Korean charges that it fired off a handful of artillery shells, sparking Wednesday's exchange. It said the South must have been confused by blasting at a construction site near the border.
South Korean officials responded there is no doubt that the North fired the shots, and dismissed its claims as typical of a country that routinely denies its provocations. U.N. Secretary General Ban Ki-moon, speaking to reporters in Seoul on Thursday, said the artillery exchange left him concerned and regretful. He said the exchange shows the situation on the Korean peninsula remains unstable.