North Korea has carried out live-fire drills near its maritime border with the south in what is the third consecutive day of military exercises, with fears mounting over what has been labelled the biggest escalation in years.
Residents on the border island of Yeonpyeong, which was last hit by North Korean shells in 2010, have been warned to stay inside as gunfire has been heard nearby and in case the South launches any countermeasures.
'North Korean gunfire is currently being heard,' said a text message sent to all residents. 'Troops on Yeonpyeong Island are currently responding, but residents are advised to be careful of outdoor activities,' it added.
None of Pyongyang's artillery shells have yet fallen south of the Northern Limit Line (NLL), the de-facto maritime border in the Yellow Sea, and no casualties have been reported, the Yonhap news agency reports.
It comes after dictator Kim Jong Un threatened a nuclear attack on the South during year-end meetings, and called for a build-up of his country's military arsenal ahead of armed conflict that he warned could 'break out any time'.
South Korea has responded with its own military exercises, sharing pictures of its howitzers firing at a base on Baengnyeong island
On both Friday and Saturday, North Korea fired artillery rounds in the same area - near Yeonpyeong and Baengnyeong, two sparsely populated islands situated just south of a defacto maritime border between the two sides.
On Friday, residents of the two islands were ordered to evacuate to shelters and ferries were suspended during one of the most serious military escalations on the peninsula since 2010, when shelling killed four people.
On both days, North Korea's shells landed in a buffer zone created under a 2018 tension-reducing deal, which fell apart in November after the North launched a spy satellite.
South Korea has responded with its own military exercises, sharing pictures of its howitzers firing at a base on Baengnyeong island.
The South Korean islands are closer to the North than the southern mainland, and are situated off the West coast of the peninsula, around a mile from the de facto maritime border between the two Koreas.
Seoul's military said on Saturday that the North fired 60 artillery shells in the area, and warned Pyongyang to immediately cease 'actions that increase tension'.
North Korea insisted on Friday that its live-fire drills that day had not even had 'an indirect effect' on the border islands.
On Sunday, Kim's powerful sister denied Seoul's claims that Pyongyang had fired dozens of artillery rounds near their border on Saturday, saying they had instead conducted a 'deceptive operation'.
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