'N Korea fires artillery shells near S Korean islands'
North Korea fired more than 200 artillery shells near two South Korean islands on Friday, prompting evacuation orders for their residents, Seoul's defence ministry and local officials said. The live firing follows repeated warnings from Kim Jong Un's regime in Pyongyang that it is prepared for war against South Korea and the United States. "The North Korean military conducted over 200 rounds of firing today from around 09:00 to 11:00 (10.00am to 12.00am local time) in the areas of Jangsan-got in the northern part of Baengnyeong Island and the northern areas... of Yeonpyeong Island," a South Korean defence ministry official said at a briefing. Local officials on the South's Yeonpyeong Island said civilians had been told to evacuate, describing the order as a "preventative measure". Yeonpyeong Island is situated in the Yellow Sea. It is located approximately 80 kilometres west of Incheon and 12km south of the coastline of Hwanghae Province, North Korea. Authorities on Baengnyeong Island also reported an evacuation order there. "We are making the evacuation announcements at the moment," a local district official at the Baengnyeong Island said, adding that he had been told the South Korean military would conduct a naval drill shortly. Pyongyang fired a barrage of 170 artillery shells onto Yeonpyeong island in November 2010, killing four people including two civilians in the first North Korean attack on a civilian area since the 1950-53 Korean War. Relations between the two Koreas are at one of their lowest points in decades, after Kim enshrined the country's status as a nuclear power into the constitution while test-firing several advanced ICBMs. At Pyongyang's key year-end policy meetings, Kim warned of a nuclear attack on the South and called for a build-up of the country's military arsenal ahead of armed conflict that he warned could "break out any time". (AFP)