Seoul (AsiaNews / Agencies) - Tensions continues unabated between the two Koreas after the attack on the island of Yeongpyeong November 23, which resulted in four deaths among civilians and soldiers in South Korea. This morning, the tension peaked when explosions were heard in the area close to the island. The South Korean army immediately launched a state of alarm, but no shells fell south of the border. According to South Korea's YTN television shells fell north of a line that marks the boundary of territorial waters of the two Koreas. Observers say Pyongyang is probably carrying out exercises in the area, to make its presence felt on the eve of a major show of force by the United States and South Korea.

The Pyongyang regime has sent threatening messages ahead of the exercises. According to the North's official KCNA agency the United States and South Korean naval manoeuvres, due to begin Sunday, will bring the Korean Peninsula to “the brink of war ". The military exercises of the “American imperialists and their South Korean puppet warmongers" are directed against North Korea says Pyongyang. "The situation on the Korean peninsula is approaching the brink of war because of these reckless projects and these trigger happy elements." And it says it is "ready to annihilate" the defences of the south, where its sovereignty is even minimally violated - " We will show a firm and merciless example to whichever provoker encroaches on our dignity and sovereignty ".

Tuesday's attack resulted in the resignation of Seoul’s Defence Minister, Kim Tae-young, criticized for the reaction, considered too weak, to the North Korean bombing. The Presidency of the Republic has not yet appointed a successor. Tensions are rising even in Tokyo. The Japanese Prime Minister, Naoto Kan, has ordered members of his government to be on alert to developments in the crisis between the two Koreas, urging ministers not to depart from Tokyo in the period between Sunday and next Wednesday, to coincide with the US-Korea joint military exercises planned in the South Yellow Sea. Each minister must be at his desk within one hour after any crisis.