South Korea holds live-fire artillery drill amid North’s warning

The South Korean defense ministry announced that self-propelled howitzers, Vulcan cannons, mortars and Cobra attack helicopters were involved in the one-day drill that started at about 10 am (0100 GMT) Monday and ended before noon.

Pyongyang had vowed "merciless” retaliatory strikes if any shells land in North Korean-claimed waters. South Korean military officials had notified the North of the scheduled exercise.

"If the traitors' group starts a reckless military provocation, our army will promptly make merciless retaliatory strikes,” Pyongyang said in a statement.

"If the puppet warmongers preempt reckless firing despite our warning, they will not escape punishment thousands-fold severer than the past Yeonpyeong Island shelling," it added.

In November 2010, Seoul and Pyongyang exchanged artillery fire in the Yellow Sea border island of Yeonpyeong. The fighting left four South Koreans, including two civilians, dead. Each side blames the other for initiating the clash.

South Korea says the maneuver is a regular monthly exercise that “was not related to inter-Korean relations,” said South Korean Unification Ministry spokesman Kim Hyung-Suk.

"This is a routine military drill for the national security, which is held in our territory. So it is inappropriate that North Korea says this and that over it,” Kim added.

The US and South Korea have conducted numerous massive joint sea and air drills in waters east of the Korean Peninsula.