South Korean troops Monday started a live-fire artillery exercise on a border island, the defence ministry said, despite threats by North Korea to hit back.
“The drill has started,” a ministry spokesman told AFP.
An AFP photographer in a bunker on Yeonpyeong island confirmed he heard the sound of artillery.
After a similar drill on Yeonpyeong on November 23, the North fired some 170 shells onto or around the island, killing four people including civilians and damaging dozens of homes.
It had threatened even deadlier retaliation if this week’s drill went ahead, saying South Korean shells from such exercises regularly land in its waters.
