South Korea started nationwide live-fire naval exercise on Monday, despite Pyongyang's warnings against conducting provocative drills in disputed waters off the west coast of the divided peninsula.
South Korea's military said the exercises were scheduled to take place in seas near the disputed Northern Limit Line (NLL) off the west coast, but not near Yeonpyeong island which was hit by a barrage of North Korean shells 13 days ago.
Pyongyang said the exercise, expected to last around a week, showed the South was "hell-bent" on setting off a war.
Among the four South Koreans killed in the November 23 attack two were civilians. Dozens of homes were destroyed.
The North justified the attack -- the first of its kind on a civilian area on South Korean soil since the end of the 1950-53 Korean war -- saying the South had fired artillery rounds into its waters.
The South said it had been conducting regular drills in the area but that they were harmless and on its side of the NLL.
South Korea's military said the latest round of naval drills would take place at 29 locations to the west, east and south of the peninsula.
The locations included Daecheong Island, one of five major islands near the Yellow Sea border, and the site of a deadly naval skirmish last year.
The North's KCNA state news agency said on Sunday the South's "frantic provocations ... are rapidly driving the situation on the Korean Peninsula to an uncontrollable extreme phase. No one can predict to what extent the situation will deteriorate in the future."
Tensions have risen to their highest level in decades on the peninsula after the Yeonpyeong attack, which came days after the North's revelation it had made significant advances in its nuclear program.
The foreign ministers of South Korea and Japan will meet U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton in Washington on Monday to discuss North Korea. They are expected to produce a statement condemning Pyongyang's actions.
China, the North's only major ally and the chair of stalled international nuclear talks with Pyongyang, is not invited. However, the Washington troika are expected to discuss Beijing's proposal for emergency regional talks on the crisis.
SEOUL GETS TOUGH
North Korea disputes the NLL, a sea border established by the United Nations, without Pyongyang's consent, at the end of the 1950-53 Korean War.
South Korea has sharply increased its rhetoric over the past week, prompted by public opinion polls critical of the conservative government's perceived weak response to the Yeonpyeong attack.
The South's new Defense Minister Kim Kwan-jin has vowed to hit back hard against the North if provoked again, saying Seoul will respond with bombs and air power next time.
Analysts say Pyongyang's latest provocations could be driven by a number of factors including internal politics and its time-honored practice of using threats and violence for leverage to win aid at talks.
Two years ago, North Korea walked out of aid-for disarmament talks -- which had brought together the two Koreas, host China, the United States, Japan and Russia.
Pyongyang said its wanted to restart the talks, and has won the backing of Beijing and Moscow, but Washington, Seoul and Tokyo have said they will only return to the negotiating table when the North shows it is sincere about denuclearizing.
