North Korea Warns of New Attacks

An undated picture made available on 25 November 2010 shows a reporter look around houses which were burned to ashes by North Korea's attack on South Korea's western Yeonpyeong Island bordering North Korea 23 November 2010. Photo by EPA/BGNES

North Korea will launch additional attacks on South Korea if it continues "reckless military provocation," the North's state media said Thursday.

Pyongyang "will deal without hesitation the second and third strong physical retaliatory blow" if provoked, its KCNA news agency said, as cited by CNN.

As an example of provocation, it indirectly referred to a military drill that South Korea and the United States plan to hold in the Yellow Sea starting Sunday.

Meanwhile, South Korea said Thursday that it will strengthen and supplement its rules of engagement in the Yellow Sea, following North Korea's shelling of the South's Yeonpyeong Island on Tuesday.

Pyongyang has blamed South Korea and the United States for the attack, which killed two South Korean marines and two civilians, and injured 15 others.

South Korea was holding annual military exercises near North Korea when Pyongyang started shelling Tuesday. Shells from the South's exercises landed in North Korean waters, KCNA said.

KCNA on Thursday continued its verbal offensive against the South Korean-US military drill that is to start Sunday.

"The US and the South Korean puppet forces are foolishly contemplating an additional provocation aimed to orchestrate another farce and charade such as the "Cheonan" case while kicking up rows and holding confabs one after another such as the declaration of a "state of emergency" and "a meeting of ministers in charge of security," far from drawing due lesson from the recent shelling," KCNA said.

The aircraft carrier USS George Washington on Wednesday sailed toward the Yellow Sea for the drill, which was billed as defensive.

"It is a long-planned exercise," said Adm. Mike Mullen, chairman of the U.S. Joint Chiefs of Staff.

"That said, it is meant to send a very strong signal of deterrence and also work with our very close allies in South Korea," Mullen said on CNN's "Fareed Zakaria GPS."

The tense maritime border between the two Koreas has become the major military flash point on the Korean peninsula in recent years.

The Yeonpyeong attack also will lead to a plan for civilian safety on the five islands in the Yellow Sea, the government spokesman said.

No details were immediately offered.

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