North Korea appears to be employing a two-track strategy after it fired artillery shells into the West Sea border for the second consecutive day Thursday, while proceeding with inter-Korean talks on joint projects.

Pyongyang also proposed talks with the United Nations Command (UNC) on the same day to discuss the resumption of operations to excavate the remains of U.S. soldiers who fought alongside South Korea in the 1950-53 Korean War.

The secretive state resumed an “artillery exercise” by firing shells toward the South’s Yeonpyeong Island from 8:15 a.m., a South Korean defense official said.

The official added that the shells landed in waters north of the Northern Limit Line (NLL), the de facto border drawn up by the U.S.-led UNC at the end of the Korean War, which the North refuses to recognize.

A day earlier, Pyongyang fired some 100 rounds in the same area on three separate occasions. No casualties or damage occurred.

A leading North Korea watcher said that this dual-track approach is aimed at pressing the United States to hold negotiations over security issues, particularly the signing of a peace treaty.

The two Koreas remain technically at war since the Korean War ended in an armistice, not a peace treaty.

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