(CNN) -- North Korea warned Friday it would launch a military strike against the South if Seoul goes ahead with live-fire drills near Yeonpyong Island over the next five days, North Korea's state-run KCNA reported.
South Korea "should take a prompt measure to stop the planned provocative maritime shelling from Yeonpyeong Island," the report said. The Korean People's Army "will deal the second and third unpredictable self-defensive blow at them to protect the inviolable territorial waters of" North Korea "as it had declared before the world".
The South Korean Joint Chiefs of Staff announced Thursday that the exercises will take place in the seas southwest of Yeonpyeong Island between December 18 and 21.
The South previously announced military exercises for this week.
Tensions mounted between the Koreas on November 23, when North Korea shelled the island, which lies in South Korean territory. The attacked killed two marines and two civilians and injured 18 people. CNN
