South Koreas military fires back scores of shells against North

South Korea's military on Thursday fired back scores of artillery shells against forces of the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK), Yonhap News Agency reported citing the military.

The military was quoted as saying that it fired back tens of shells toward where it believed the DPRK forces had fired rockets toward the south side in the western inter-Korean land border.

An official at the South Korean Defense Ministry told Xinhua that the ballistic trajectory of rockets, believed to be fired from the DPRK, was detected at about 3:52 p.m. (0652 GMT) with the counter-battery radar.

The official said that the military was verifying whether the DPRK forces fired shells targeted at the South Korean army units in frontline areas.

No damage to South Korean troops have been reported yet. The South Korean military was ready to shoot back.

The South Korean presidential office convened an emergency meeting of the National Security Council (NSC) after the suspected shelling from the DPRK.

South Korean people living in villages near the western border were evacuated at about 5:10 p.m.