President Park Geun-hye stressed Monday that South Korea should keep an iron-clad security posture, saying it would serve as the major foundation for building healthy inter-Korean relations.
  
"An iron-clad security posture is an important basis for safeguarding South Korea's freedom and peace as well as building healthy inter-Korean relations," Park said in a video message at a ceremony to mark the fifth anniversary of the deadly North Korean shelling of the South's border island.
 
In what was North Korea's first attack on South Korean domain since the 1950-53 Korean War, scores of artillery rounds and rockets were fired on Yeonpyeong Island just south of the de facto inter-Korean sea border of the Northern Limit Line (NLL) on Nov. 23, 2010.
  
The bombardment escalated into an artillery engagement between the Koreas, killing two South Korean soldiers and two civilians.
  
"I want our military to build up a perfect combat readiness posture so they can deal with any kind of threat or provocation without hesitation," Park said.   
  
About 4,000 government officials and the bereaved families, including Prime Minister Hwang Kyo-ahn and Defense Minister Han Min-koo, gathered together at the War Memorial in Seoul to commemorate the fifth anniversary.
  
The ceremony also included a performance by elementary students from the island that re-enacted the 2010 engagement. Marine Corps servicemen also staged a group dance performance in commemoration.
  
The prime minister pledged that "the government and the military will foster powerful defense capabilities as to be able to protect the safety and peace of our nationals in any case."
  
"Taking the North Korean provocation as a searing lesson, we should open up a new era of genuine peace," the prime minister said, also vowing government efforts for the reunification of the divided countries. 
  
Later in the day, South Korea conducted a live-fire drill in the waters off Yeonpyeong and its adjacent border islands, brushing aside North Korea's warning of retaliation a day earlier.
  
About 300 artillery shells were fired in the 40-minute artillery drill, which started at 4:00 p.m., by the Marine Corps unit stationed in the border islands.
  
The fire exercise came despite North Korea's warning a day earlier that it will retaliate "mercilessly" if the South fires artillery into North Korean waters.
  
"All the shells fired in the latest maritime artillery drill landed in South Korean waters," a military official said.
  
North Korea has not shown any abnormal military activity so far.
  
The South Korean military had originally planned a larger-sized drill, but downsized it, citing unfavorable weather conditions.
  
"Cloudy weather and a heavy sea fog made it difficult to assess the exact performance of the drill. So the types of weapons deployed were downsized," the official said.
  
Defense Ministry spokesman Kim Min-seok said in a separate press briefing that the drill is part of regular military exercises and that if North Korea launches any provocations, Seoul will hit back immediately. (Yonhap)