A spokesman for the Joint Chiefs of Staff said the order was issued for all the islands on the Yellow Sea frontline with the North, after Seoul said it would stage the artillery exercise on Yeonpyeong island later Monday.

"It will happen today," a defence ministry spokesman told AFP without giving a time.

Local officials on Yeonpyeong made a similar loudspeaker announcement Monday morning, an AFP photographer said. They later told residents, reporters, officials and others on the island to move to shelters within 30 minutes.

Yonhap news agency, quoting sources, said the drill was expected to be held between 11:00 am and noon (0200-0300 GMT).

It said that apart from the military there are about 280 people on the island, which is 12 kilometres (seven miles) from the North Korean coast.

After a similar exercise by marines based on Yeonpyeong on November 23, the North fired some 170 shells onto or around the island, killing four people including civilians and damaging dozens of homes.

It has threatened even deadlier retaliation if the upcoming drill goes ahead.

The United Nations Security Council met to try to calm tensions but failed to reach agreement on a statement, Russia's UN envoy said.

The North disputes the Yellow Sea border between the two Koreas drawn by United Nations forces after the 1950-53 war. It claims the waters around Yeonpyeong and other frontline islands as its own maritime territory.

The North says it attacked last month after the South's drill dropped shells into its waters.

Last month's bombardment was the first of civilian areas in the South since the 1950-53 Korean War. It sparked outrage in the South, which rushed more troops and guns to the frontline islands.

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