North Korea threatens war over South's military drills

North Korea warned the South today that it would strike if Seoul staged artillery drills on the front-line island that was shelled last month.

Pyonyang warned the South against holding drills before the November 23 shelling that destroyed homes on Yeonpyeong island and killed four people.

South Korea is planning a day of live-fire drills on the island, which is seven miles from the North's coast, at some point between Saturday and Tuesday. Seoul says the drills' timing will depend on weather and other factors and is determined the exercises will go ahead despite the North's threats.

The assault was the North's first on a civilian area since the end of the Korean War in 1953 and caused anger and shock in the South, where TV screens and newspapers were filled with images of islanders fleeing their bombed-out, burning homes.

A senior North Korean military official said that if the South goes ahead with more drills, "unpredictable self-defensive strikes will be made".

"The intensity and scope of the strike will be more serious than the November 23 (shelling)," the North said.

South Korean president Lee Myung-bak's government has faced criticism that his military was unprepared for the attack and reacted too slowly and too weakly. He has since replaced his defence minister and vowed to increase troops and weapons on islands along the Koreas' disputed western sea border.