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South Korea to hold artillery drills near border with North

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South Korea plans this weekend to hold artillery drills on the island in the Yellow Sea that was attacked by North Korea last month, the Yonhap news agency said on Thursday.

South Korea plans this weekend to hold artillery drills on the island in the Yellow Sea that was attacked by North Korea last month, the Yonhap news agency said on Thursday.

"The military has decided to hold a one-day live-fire drill on Yeonpyeong Island between Dec. 18 and 21," Col. Lee Bung-woo, spokesman for the Joint Chiefs of Staff (JCS), was quoted by the news agency as saying.

On November 23, North Korea shelled Yeonpyeong, a front-line island at the maritime border between the countries, killing two civilians and two marines, in response to South Korea's drills in the Yellow Sea. Pyongyang claims that shells fired during the South's drills violated its territory.

Artillery fire will be aimed away from the North, the spokesman said. However, the drill is still likely to anger Pyongyang, which does not recognize the sea border between the countries, drawn up by the United States at the end of the 1950s Korean War.

An indentified source in the South Korean Chiefs of Staff Committee told Yonhap the exact timing of the planned drill will be fixed later after considering weather and other relevant conditions.

The drills will be observed by officials from the Military Armistice Commission of the U.S.-led United Nations Command (UNC) to ensure that it is carried out in accordance with the 1953 armistice that ended the Korean War, the JCS spokesman said.

Some 20 U.S. soldiers will also take part in the exercises by providing medical and communications support, he said.

Residents on Yeonpyeong will be advised to leave the island before the drill starts, and those who want to stay will be taken to shelters, the spokesman told Yonhap.

South Korean officials have warned the North it will retaliate harshly if Pyongyang attacks the South's territory again.

MOSCOW, December 16 (RIA Novosti)

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