Article Posted on : - Jan 27, 2012

A file photo.

SEOUL (AFP): South Korean Marines staged a live-fire artillery drill on Thursday on an island shelled by North Korea in 2010, the first such exercise since the death of Pyongyang's leader Kim Jong-Il last month.

"Our troops staged two-hour firing drills today" on two frontline islands -- Baengnyeong and Yeonpyeong, a Marine Corps spokesman told AFP.

A similar drill on Yeonpyeong in November 2010 provoked a North Korean artillery barrage which killed two Marines and two civilians and sparked international alarm.

"This is one of our routine and regular drills," the spokesman said, adding it had been planned well before Kim's death on December 17.

The firing drills near the disputed Yellow Sea border involved K-9 self-propelled guns, Vulcan cannon and other artillery, Yonhap news agency said.

North Korea accused the South's government of "kicking up war fever" and said the drills were designed to test an attack on its territory from the islands.

"However, all Koreans and the rest of the world clearly see through the shameless and bellicose true colours of the group," its official news agency said, in a comparatively restrained response to the exercise.

Military tensions have been high since Seoul accused Pyongyang of torpedoing a warship near the border with the loss of 46 lives in March 2010. South Korea has staged a series of drills alone or jointly with US troops since then.

The North denied torpedoing the ship but launched its shelling attack later that year. The South has since then reinforced the frontline islands with extra troops, more artillery and attack helicopters.

Kim has been succeeded by his youngest son Jong-Un.

The regime has taken a hostile tone with the South since the takeover and vowed that its policy will not change.