DPRK starts live-fire drill near inter-Korean border: YTN

The Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK) set off its live-fire drill Tuesday afternoon near the disputed inter-Korean border islands, about a month after conducting the same drill.

YTN reported citing military officials and one islander living in one of the five western maritime border islands that Pyongyang started the pre-noticed live-fire drills at about 2:00 pm local time.

The DPRK was known to have fired self-propelled artillery shells from coastal battery positions toward waters just north of the western inter-Koran sea border. No shells that land in waters south of the maritime border have been reported yet.

South Korean military planned to fire, in response, its artillery shells toward waters north of the sea border if DPRK's shells fall on its territorial waters, Defense Ministry spokesman Kim Min-seok said earlier.

Kim told a regular press briefing that the Southwestern Command of the Korean People's Army sent a fax to the South Korean Navy' s Second Fleet at 8:52 a.m., which notified the live-fire drill near the Northern Limit Line (NLL).

People in the five western sea border islands have been evacuated, and four South Korean fighter jets scrambled to prepare for possible provocations such as shells landing in the islands.

(Updated at 15:00)