S.Korean navy, coast guards stage joint maritime exercise against DPRK

South Korea's navy and coast guards on Friday carried out a joint maritime exercise against possible terrorist attacks from the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK), a local broadcaster YTN reported.

The joint maritime exercise, which kicked off at about 2:30 p.m. (0530 GMT) in western waters, would last for about an hour to defend South Korean civilian ships from the DPRK's surprise attacks.

The drill assumed a situation that DPRK naval forces hijack a South Korean passenger ferry sailing between border islands in the western waters.

Nine patrol ships, four high-speed boats, two helicopters and three anti-terror special forces units were mobilized for the drill.

They trained to approach the DPRK vessel to bring it under and save the hijacked people.

The exercise came amid growing concerns here about the DPRK's surprise attacks after South Korea's spy agency reported to ruling party lawmakers that top DPRK leader Kim Jong Un had recently ordered officials to muster up capability for anti-South Korea terror attacks.

Tensions mounted on the Korean peninsula as DPRK forces fired off six short-range projectiles into eastern waters on Thursday in an apparent show of anger over the adoption of new tougher UN Security Council resolutions on Pyongyang.

The DPRK projectiles, launched from the country's eastern coastal town of Wonsan, flew about 100 to 150 km eastward, according to South Korea's military.

The launch came hours after the new harsher sanctions were unanimously approved at the UN Security Council against the DPRK over its latest nuclear test and long-range rocket launch.

The DPRK launched a satellite into orbit aboard a rocket, which was condemned by outsiders as a banned test of missile technology, on Feb. 7, after testing what it claimed was its first hydrogen bomb on Jan. 6, the fourth of its nuclear detonations. Enditem