SOUTH KOREA STRENGTHENS MILITARY NEAR BORDER AFTER ATTACK

South Korea ordered extra troops deployed on islands near North Korea on Thursday with Pyongyang warning it would follow its latest bombardment with more attacks if its wealthy neighbor tried any "provocations."

China is coming under increasing pressure to rein its prickly ally and South Korean media reports said Tuesday's artillery attack was likely personally ordered by Pyongyang's reclusive leader Kim Jong-il."(North Korea) will wage second and even third rounds of attacks without any hesitation, if warmongers in South Korea make reckless military provocations again," the North's KCNA news agency quoted a statement from the military as saying.

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TWO KOREA'S EXCHANGE FIRE NEAR WESTERN MARITIME BORDER

North Korea fired artillery shells toward Yeonpyeong Island. Tensions escalated on the Korean peninsula today as the two Koreas exchanged fire for the fourth time in recent years near the western maritime border.

North Korea fired artillery shells at Yeonpyeong Island, some landing in sea but some landing on the island's residential area, said Col. Lee Bung-Woo, a spokesman for South Korea's Joint Chiefs of Staff. The South responded with its own artillery fire. South Korean media is reporting that 60 to 70 houses in the fishing village and areas in the mountains are on fire, engulfed in thick smoke..

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