South Korea Conducts Additional Military Drill After Finished Live-Fire Drill on Monday

On Monday 20^th December 2010, South Korea has been started live-fire drill exercise near the border island which attacked by North Korea last month, killed four people including civilians and damaging dozens of homes. And now South Korea is carrying out more military exercises on land and sea this week. While officials call the training routine it could raise already high tensions with North Korea.

South Korea's navy Wednesday began a three-day exercise in waters off the country's east coast, about 100 kilometers south of the maritime border.

The chief military research fellow at South Korea's Institute for Defense Analyses, Park Chang-kwon, says the drill demonstrates a readiness posture to the South Korean public, as well to North Korea's military leadership.

Park says unlike the Yellow Sea, the eastern waters are not in dispute so the exercise should not give Pyongyang any cause to retaliate, but the North can be unpredictable. He notes this drill is meant to better prepare South Korea's navy against submarine intrusions.

The army and air force are to stage their largest-ever wintertime joint live-fire exercise Thursday, 20 kilometers from the North Korean border.