N.Korea fires artillery, S.Korea responds: Yonhap

North Korea leader Kim Jong-Un threatened to "wipe out" a South Korean island as Pyongyang came under new economic and diplomatic fire Tuesday from US sanctions and UN charges of gross rights abuses.

North Korea Friday fired artillery into the sea near its disputed border with South Korea for a third successive day, Seoul's military said.The communist state fired 20 shells between 7.50 am (2250 GMT Thursday) and 11.50 am, a spokesman for the Joint Chiefs of Staff (JCS) told AFP.He said shells landed in North Korean waters off South Korea's Yeonpyeong island. They dropped further away from the borderline than on Wednesday and Thursday.

North Korea fired artillery into the sea Wednesday near its disputed border with South Korea and South Korean forces fired back, Seoul officials said.The North's artillery batteries on land fired into waters near the border shortly after 9:00 am (0000 GMT), a spokesman for the Joint Chiefs of Staff said."Our military immediately fired back in response," a Seoul presidential official told AFP on condition of anonymity.

North Korea Friday fired artillery into the sea near its disputed border with South Korea for the third successive day, Seoul's military said.The communist state fired 20 shells between 7:50 am (2250 GMT Thursday) and 11:50 am," a spokesman for the Joint Chiefs of Staff told AFP.He said shells landed in the North's territory north of South Korea's Yeonpyeong island. They dropped further away from the borderline than on Wednesday and Thursday.

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North Korea fired dozens of artillery shells onto a South Korean island on Tuesday, killing one person and triggering an exchange of fire as southern armed forces went on their highest state of alert.In what appeared to be one of the most serious border incidents since the 1950-53 war, South Korea's government convened in an underground war room and air force jets were reportedly scrambled to the Yellow Sea island.

North Korea fired an artillery barrage Monday into waters near the disputed inter-Korean sea border as tensions rose over a South Korean naval exercise and the seizure of one of a Seoul's fishing boats.Batteries fired about 110 shells which all fell on the North's side of the Yellow Sea borderline, a spokesman for Seoul's Joint Chiefs of Staff told AFP.The salvos began after the South's navy ended a five-day naval exercise south of the border, for which the North had threatened retaliation.

South Korea's navy Thursday staged a major anti-submarine exercise, its first show of strength since tensions with North Korea flared over the sinking of one of Seoul's warships.About 10 warships including a 3,000-tonne destroyer and three patrol boats took part in the one-day drill, Yonhap news agency quoted military officials as saying. The defence ministry declined to give immediate details.The drill was held off the west coast town of Taean, far south of the disputed Yellow Sea border where the Cheonan corvette was torn in two by a North Korean torpedo on March 26.