South Korea began live-fire drills on Sunday on islands near its border with North Korea despite the dire imprecations issuing forth from the Hermit Kingdom. The military exercises are supposed to last about two hours, and the North was informed of the drills on Sunday. They are being conducted near where a 2010 North Korean artillery strike took the lives of four South Koreans. A North Korean officer told the Associated Press that North Koreans are prepared to “dedicate their blood to defend their inviolable territory.”
