N Korea shoots artillery shells towards South's border island
South Korea ordered civilians to seek shelter on the island before holding live fire drills of its own.
The South called it a "provocative act", but the North denied the islands were in danger from its firing drills.
In 2010, North Korean artillery fired scores of times on Yeonpyeong island, killing four people.
The artillery shells fired on Friday, between 09:00 to 11:00 local time (00:00 to 02:00 GMT) did not enter South Korean territory as they all landed in the buffer zone between the two countries.
South Korea's Joint Chiefs of Staff said the incident caused "no damage to our people or military", but added that the act "threatens peace on the Korean peninsula and raises tensions".
The shelling follows warnings from Pyongyang that it was building up its military arsenal in preparation for war that could "break out at any time" on the peninsular.
Authorities on two nearby islands, Baengnyeong and Daecheong, also told civilians to seek shelter.
"North Korea resuming its artillery fire drills inside the non-hostility zone this morning is an act of provocation which threatens peace on the Korean Peninsula and raises tension," South Korea's Defence Minister Shin Won-sik said in a statement on Friday.
"Our military must assume the readiness to completely wipe out the enemy so that they wouldn't dare another provocation, and to back up the pace through strength," he said.
His ministry said it did not observe any movements from the North during South Korea's drills.
The North's official news agency KCNA later said its firing drills off the west coast were a "natural response" to large-scale military actions by its neighbour.
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