Seoul to go ahead with drills despite threats of war

The drills were delayed from the weekend by bad weather, giving time for an emergency U.N. Security Council meeting to try to calm tensions. But it ended without agreement after more than eight hours of talks, with the five big powers split on whether to publicly blame North Korea for the crisis.

"The drill will start as soon as the fog clears," a marine officer on Yeonpyeong told Reuters as he ducked into a bunker.

Yonhap news agency quoted the Defense Ministry as saying the exercise will start after 1 p.m. (0400 GMT) and last less than two hours. Heavy fog was still blanketing the island in freezing temperatures but was forecast to clear in the afternoon.

On November 23, the last time Seoul conducted live firing drills from Yeonpyeong close to the disputed maritime border off the west coast of the peninsula, Pyongyang shelled the island, killing two civilians and two marines in the worst attack on South Korean territory since the Korean war ended in 1953.