South Korea carried out live-fire drills near its western border islands Monday, despite North Korea's threat of retaliation.
"We had our routine maritime firing drills for about two hours starting 9:30 a.m.," an official with the Joint Chiefs of Staff (JCS) said. "These were designed to test our weapons at Marine Corps units on the Yellow Sea and also to maintain our military's combat readiness in the area."
The drills took place in waters near Baengnyeong and Yeonpyeong islands, located just south of the tense Yellow Sea border with North Korea. They came a day after the North's military vowed to "promptly make merciless retaliatory strikes" if the South violates its territorial waters.
The JCS said the North had placed its armed forces on heightened alert during the South's exercises, but that it had detected no unusual movement from north of the border.
Military officials said the drills were the second of their kind this year and involved self-propelled howitzers, Vulcans, mortars and Cobra attack helicopters. About 5,000 rounds of shots were fired, all of them falling into South Korean waters, officials added.
Complying with Marine Corps' notification, about 1,000 island residents were evacuated into safe zones before the drills began, officials said.
They also said they notified North Korea of the scheduled drills through representatives at the truce village of Panmunjom on Sunday. But the North responded that the drills amounted to a "premeditated military provocation."
North Korea shelled Yeonpyeong Island in November 2010, killing two Marines and two civilians in the first North Korean attack on South Korean territory since the 1950-53 Korean War.
In Sunday's warning, the North said the South "should not forget the lesson" of the Yeonpyeong bombing. South Korean officials had vowed that if the North launched provocation, the South would strike back and exercise its right to self-defense.
While the drills were underway, the Unification Ministry, which handles inter-Korean affairs in Seoul, said the North had overstepped its boundaries with its warning.
"It is inappropriate for North Korea to talk about our routine exercises in such fashion," said ministry spokesman Kim Hyung-suk in a press briefing. "The drills were held within our territorial waters to ensure our national security." (Yonhap)
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