Naval firing drills started despite warnings

Seoul, SOUTH KOREA (AP):

South Korean troops pushed ahead with naval firing drills yesterday, a day after North Korea warned the exercises would aggravate tensions between the rivals following the North's deadly shelling of a front-line South Korean island.

Regional powers stepped up diplomatic efforts to head off further conflict, with President Barack Obama speaking to China's Hu Jintao by telephone yesterday and top diplomats from the US, South Korea and Japan scheduled to hold talks later in Washington.

Obama condemned North Korea's November 23 artillery shelling of Yeonpyeong Island and its pursuit of a uranium-enrichment programme, and urged Hu to send Pyongyang a message that its "provocations are unacceptable", the White House said.

The attack killed two marines and two civilian construction workers, the first attack on a civilian area since the 1950-53 Korean War.

North Korea said it unleashed the artillery fire after Seoul went ahead with routine live-fire drills despite Pyongyang's warnings to call off the military exercises. The North disputes the maritime border drawn in 1953 by UN forces, and considers the waters around Yeonpyeong, which lies just seven miles (11 kilometres) from its shores, its territory.

The shelling occurred just days after reports that North Korea had revealed a large uranium-enrichment facility that would give it a new method of making material for atomic bombs in addition to its known plutonium-based programme.

Yesterday, the South Korean army launched a new round of artillery exercises set to continue through Sunday, army and joint chiefs of staff officials said.