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North Korea said on Wednesday it had fired artillery shells into waters near its border with South Korea as a warning for the South's military exercises.
The Korean People's Army has launched "threatening, warning shots towards the eastern and western waters... as a powerful military countermeasure," the military's General Staff said, according to a statement published by state news agency KCNA.
The statement demanded that Sueli "immediately stop the inciting provocations, which escalate military tensions on the war front". South Korea has said that North Korea has launched more than 250 artillery shells into the western and eastern gulfs in the border area that separates the two countries.
None of the projectiles crossed South Korea's territorial waters, Seoul said. Seoul has this week started military exercises for defense, which will continue until October 28.
The North Koreans have considered these exercises as "military actions of the enemy, against the North". The situation on the Korean Peninsula is very tense. North Korea, a nuclear-armed state, has conducted several missile tests in recent weeks.
The government in Pyongyang has said the tests were intended to simulate the launch of tactical nuclear weapons in areas of South Korea. United Nations resolutions prohibit North Korea from testing all types of ballistic missiles.