North Korea has fired dozens of artillery shells into the sea in a live-fire drill near the disputed maritime border with South Korea that followed a recent series of missile tests.
The drill began shortly before midday on Monday (1300 AEST) using land artillery units based at the eastern tip of the demilitarised zone that bisects the Korean peninsula, the South's Joint Chiefs of Staff (JCS) said.
"Dozens of shells were fired into North Korean territorial waters," a JCS spokesman said.
The drill came with South Korean border troops already on heightened alert after a series of short-range ballistic missile tests by the North in recent weeks, including the firing of two Scud missiles into the Sea of Japan (East Sea) on Sunday.
UN resolutions bar North Korea from conducting any launches using ballistic missile technology.
North Korea often conducts tests and drills as a show of displeasure, and Sunday's missiles were fired after Pyongyang denounced an upcoming South Korean-US naval exercise.
The annual drill, from July 16-21, involves the US aircraft carrier George Washington, which arrived in the southern port of Busan on Friday.
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