North Korea warning over South Korea-US military drill
North Korea has vowed to hit back if its waters are violated during joint US-South Korean military exercises, the North's state-run news agency reports.
The warning came as residents of a South Korean island shelled on Tuesday by Pyongyang were briefly ordered to shelter in bunkers.
South Korea's Yonhap agency said the order was given after artillery fire was heard on Yeonpyeong Island.
Earlier, South Korea and the US began their exercises off Korea's coast.
Pyongyang has condemned the live bombing and firing drill - which is set to last four days - as a provocation.
The US says the exercises are intended to deter North Korea from launching further attacks on the South.
China has also expressed concern about military activity by foreign navies so close to its territory, and has warned the Americans not to stray too close.
"We will deliver a brutal military blow on any provocation which violates our territorial waters," the North's state-controlled KCNA news agency said.
The warning was expressed shortly after the US-South Korean drills began in the Yellow Sea, about 125km (77 miles) south of the disputed maritime border between the two Koreas, about 40km off the Korean coast.
Later on Sunday, the residents of Yeonpyeong Island were briefly ordered to evacuate the area and go to shelters. The order was lifted about 40 minutes later.
The reason for the alert remains unclear, but it came after artillery fire was reportedly heard on the island.
Most of some 1,700 residents on Yeonpyeong have already left the island, but some 20 people are still there.
Separately, Yonhap reported that Pyongyang had placed surface-to-surface missiles on launch pads in the Yellow Sea and also moved surface-to-air missiles to frontline areas.
So far there has been no independent confirmation of the report.
The BBC's Chris Hogg, in the South Korean capital Seoul, says military sources there say that planning for the war games began before North Korea's attack in which four South Koreans - two marines and two civilians - were killed.
But the sources add that the intensity of the live fire and bombing drills will now be stepped up.
The US aircraft carrier the USS George Washington and four other US navy vessels are being joined by South Korean destroyers, patrol vessels, frigates, support ships and anti-submarine aircraft.
The George Washington is likely to be stationed further south in international waters, but still technically within striking range of Chinese cities.
In an earlier statement, KCNA warned that "if the US brings its carrier to the West Sea of Korea (Yellow Sea), no-one can predict the ensuing consequences."
Continue reading the main storyNorth Korea: Timeline 2010
26 March: South Korean warship, Cheonan, sinks, killing 46 sailors
20 May: Panel says a North Korean torpedo sank the ship; Pyongyang denies involvement
July-September: South Korea and US hold military exercises; US places more sanctions on Pyongyang
29 September: North holds rare party congress seen as part of father-to-son succession move
29 October: Troops from North and South Korea exchange fire across the land border
12 November: North Korea shows US scientist new - undeclared - uranium enrichment facility
23 November: North shells island of Yeonpyeong, killing at least four South Koreans
- In pictures: S Korean anger
- US-South alliance under pressure
- Koreans angry and worried
- Brief history of the Korean War
On Saturday, North Korea accused the South of using civilians as human shields on Yeonpyeong island.
The North's state media said the South was using the deaths of the two civilians for propaganda, in its words "creating the impression that the defenceless civilians were exposed to indiscriminate shelling from the North".
Pyongyang said it had been provoked by the South's military exercises, which were being carried out close to Yeonpyeong.
It said the North had sent a "telephone notice" on the morning of the shelling "to prevent the clash at the last moment" but the South continued its "provocation".
The US has called on China, North Korea's only ally, to increase its pressure on Pyongyang to prevent further incidents.
China has said its "top priority" is to keep the situation under control. Beijing has begun a series of talks in an attempt to ease the tension.
On Sunday, the Chinese state-run Xinhua news agency said that Choe Tae-Bok, the head of North Korea's parliament, would visit Beijing on Tuesday.
The announcement came as senior Chinese foreign policy adviser Dai Bingguo was holding talks in Seoul with South Korea's top officials.
Our correspondent says that Beijing now appears to be taking a more active role in dealing with the regional crisis.
However, the top US military commander, Admiral Mike Mullen, said earlier he did not know "why China doesn't push harder" with Pyongyang.
In an interview with CNN due to be broadcast on Sunday but released as a transcript, Adm Mullen said Beijing appeared to mistakenly believe it could control North Korea's leader, Kim Jong-il.
"I'm not sure he is controllable," Adm Mullen said.
Inside North Korea
Why border hot-spot is war relic
Historian Andrew Salmon looks at why the maritime border to the west of the Korean Peninsula is a flashpoint for confrontation between the two Koreas.
US resorts to carrier diplomacy
Hard choices for South Korea
China's muted response
As it happened: Artillery clash
Background
North Korea firing: Why now?
Q&A: North Korea nuclear talks
Q&A: Inter-Korean crisis
Timeline: Nuclear stand-off
The Korean War armistice
A guide to North Korea
From other news sites
Reuters UK WRAPUP 2-N.Korea readies missiles as US, South Korea begin drill 3 hrs ago
Korea Herald S. Korea, U.S. start major naval drills to warn N.K. 6 hrs ago
Telegraph South Korea: despach from the frontline of World War Three 6 hrs ago
Guardian.co.uk Both Koreas issue threats on eve of US-Seoul war games 6 hrs ago
Sky News US And S Korea Prepare For Military Exercises 13 hrs ago
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