The South Korean Marine Corps held live-fire shooting drills near western border islands in the Yellow Sea on Monday morning.

Marine Corps units on Baengnyeong and Yeonpyeong Islands mobilized K-9 self-propelled howitzers, Vulcan cannons and mortars for the two-hour drills.

This is the second round of drills held near the western border islands this year. The first round was held on January 26th.

North Korea's Committee for Peaceful Unification of the Fatherland said Monday if the South goes ahead with the drills, it will suffer a punishment several thousand times more frightening than the North's shelling of Yeonpyeong Island in late 2010.

Earlier Sunday, the North's military vowed to launch a merciless retaliatory strike if the South begins its military provocation.