Artillery heard on tense Yellow Sea island
(AP) – 3 hours ago
YEONPYEONG ISLAND, South Korea (AP) — South Korea said fresh artillery shots were heard Friday on this Yellow Sea island, three days after it was devastated by a North Korean attack and hours after Pyongyang warned that the peninsula was on the brink of war.
The blasts happened just after the top U.S. commander in South Korea, Gen. Walter Sharp, toured Yeonpyeong island in a show of solidarity with Seoul and to survey damage from the Tuesday's hail of North Korean artillery fire that killed four people.
An official at the South Korean Joint Chiefs of Staff said several new rounds of artillery fire were heard Friday on Yeonpyeong, which is just 7 miles (11 kilometers) south of the North Korean mainland. The military official said several distant explosive sounds came from the direction of North Korea.
South Korea's YTN television network, citing an unidentified military official, said North Korea apparently was carrying out a military drill, and had fired up to 20 rounds. Yeonpyeong residents were fleeing to shelters, the report said. The report couldn't be immediately confirmed.