North Korea warns Seoul against military exercises near flashpoint

By the CNN Wire Staff

December 17, 2010 6:10 a.m. EST

South Korean marines patrol along the wharf on Yeonpyong island near the maritime border between the two Koreas.

STORY HIGHLIGHTS

• Yeonpyeong Island is a flashpoint between the Koreas
• North Korea could react negatively to South's military exercises, U.S. says
• North: Will deliver "self-defensive blow" if military exercise takes place

(CNN) -- North Korea warned Friday it would launch a military strike against the South if Seoul goes ahead with live-fire drills near Yeonpyong Island over the next five days, North Korea's state-run KCNA reported.

South Korea "should take a prompt measure to stop the planned provocative maritime shelling from Yeonpyeong Island," the report said. The Korean People's Army "will deal the second and third unpredictable self-defensive blow at them to protect the inviolable territorial waters of" North Korea "as it had declared before the world."

The South Korean Joint Chiefs of Staff announced Thursday that the exercises will take place in the seas southwest of Yeonpyeong Island between December 18 and 21.

The South previously announced military exercises for this week.

Tensions mounted between the Koreas on November 23, when North Korea shelled the island, which lies in South Korean territory. The attacked killed two marines and two civilians and injured 18 people.

Bill Richardson in North Korea

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The North has accused the South of provoking the attack because shells from a South Korean military drill landed in the North's waters.

Last month's attack was the first direct artillery assault on South Korea since 1953, when an armistice ended fighting.

The U.S. military has said it is concerned that South Korea's exercises could spark an uncontrollable clash with the North, but the State Department said the exercises are not meant to be threatening or provocative.

"What we worry about, obviously, is if that is misunderstood or if it's taken advantage of as an opportunity," Gen. James Cartwright, vice chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, said Thursday at the Pentagon.

"If North Korea were to react to that in a negative way and fire back at those firing positions on the islands, that would start potentially a chain reaction of firing and counter-firing."