NK vows retaliation if S. Korea conducts live-fire drills near border

North Korea vowed Friday to retaliate with greater firepower if South Korea goes ahead with its planned live-fire drills from the frontline island that has been devastated by North Korean shelling.

"Second and third self-defensive blows that cannot be predicted will be dealt" if South Korea conducts the one-day drills scheduled between Saturday and Tuesday, the North's military said in a statement carried by the official Korean Central News Agency (KCNA).

"The intensity and range of the firepower will create a situation more serious than one on Nov. 23" when the North shelled the Yeonpyeong island in the Yellow Sea and killed two marines and two civilians, the North said.

North Korea fired about 170 shells to attack the island, prompting the South to fire back but with no clear success in retaliation. South Korea has vowed to make the North pay back.

"The South Korean puppet warmongers must immediately cancel the provocative coastal live-fire drills planned on Yeonpyeong," the unnamed head of the North's colonel-level military delegation said.

The KCNA said the warning was delivered to the South's defense ministry at around noon on Friday, calling the sea surrounding the small island part of "our sacred territorial waters."

North Korea has said any shells fired from Yeonpyeong are bound to violate its waters because the country does not respect the Yellow Sea border drawn by a U.S. general at the end of the 1950-53 Korean War, which ended in a truce.

北 "연평도 사격훈련 강행시 타격 가할 것"

북한군이 17일 연평도 일원에서 사격훈련을 강행하면 `자위적 타격'을 가하겠다고 위협했다.

조선중앙통신에 따르면 북한 인민군은 남북장성급회담 북측단장 명의의 통지문에서 "괴뢰 군부 호전광들은 연평도에서 계획하고 있는 해상사격을 즉각 중지하는 조치를 취해야 한다"면서 "연평도 포사격을 강행할 경우 우리 공화국 영해를 고수하기 위해 2차, 3차의 예상할 수 없는 자위적 타격이 가해질 것"이라고 밝혔다.

이 통지문은 또 "그 화력의 강도와 포괄 범위는 지난 11월23일(연평도 포격 당일)보다 더 심각한 상황을 재현하게 될 것"이라고 덧붙였다.

중앙통신은 이런 내용의 통지문이 이날 오후 12시20분 남측에 전달했다고 말했다.