N Korea's new nuclear test will not be left without response — S Korean FM
31 March 2014, 12:13 -- North Korea's possible new nuclear test will not be left without response, South Korean Foreign Minister Yun Byung-se warned on Monday. 'Whether North Korea will conduct a nuclear test ultimately depends on (the decision of) the North's leadership, but their choice will largely determine the future of North Korea,' the minister said. 'If North Korea carries out a nuclear test, (it) will certainly have to pay severe costs,' the South Korean foreign minister said.
Residents of a South Korean island evacuated amid North Korean firing drills
South Korea has evacuated residents from one of its islands in the Yellow Sea due to firing drills launched by North Korea. Earlier, Pyongyang notified Seoul that it would conduct live-fire drills in several areas along the disputed maritime border with the South on Monday. Several shells fell into the sea off a South Korean island. South Korean artillery returned the fire. There have been no reports of casualties so far.
The drills coincided with massive US-South Korean naval and Air Force exercises in the Yellow Sea.
N Korea fires more than 500 shots of artillery, South returns with 300
North Korea fired more than 500 rounds of artillery in a drill on Monday and about 100 of them landed in the water south of a disputed maritime border off the western coast of the peninsula, South Korea's defence ministry said.
The South returned fire with more than 300 rounds aimed at an area north of the so-called Northern Limit Line, ministry spokesman Kim Min-seok said, calling the North's action 'a test of the South's determination to defend the naval border'.
Two Koreas trade fire across maritime border - military
North and South Korea traded fire across their disputed maritime border on Monday, with the South's military saying it had responded to shells landing in its waters from a North live-fire drill.
'Some of the shells fired by North Korea dropped in our area and our side responded with fire,' a spokesman for the South Korean Joint Chiefs of Staff told AFP.
North Korea Monday held military exercises near the maritime border with the South, drawing response fire from Southern troops, a news report said.
Some artillery shells from the North landed on the other side of the Northern Limit Line, a disputed maritime border off the west of the peninsula, prompting South Korean forces to fire self-propelled howitzer shells in response, the South's joint chiefs of staff (JCS) were quoted as saying by Yonhap News Agency in Seoul.
The JCS had received a fax announcing the drill from the North's Korean People's Army earlier Monday, the report said.
Seoul banned vessels from entering the training zone declared by the North, and evacuated a nearby island, Yonhap said.
North Korea conducts regular artillery drills, but does not usually give advance warning.
In March 2013, leader Kim Jong Un attended a drill involving several artillery weapons in the naval base of Wonsan on the eastern coast, around 100 kilometres north of the border.
Pyongyang on Sunday also threatened to carry out new nuclear tests despite condemnation from the UN Security Council for its recent missile launches into the sea.
The North has slammed this month's joint military drills by South Korean and US forces as rehearsal for an invasion.
Residents of S Korean border island taken to shelters - official
Residents of a South Korean border island were taken into shelters Monday, as the two Koreas traded live fire across their disputed maritime border, an island official said.
'We are urging all residents to evacuate to shelters right now, and some have already done so,' a town hall official on Baengnyeong island told AFP.
Voice of Russia, AFP, dpa, TASS, Reuters
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