North Korea threatened a “second Yeonpyeong Island disaster” as South Korea prepares to commemorate the second anniversary of the shelling which claimed four lives.

Pyongyang condemned Seoul’s plan to hold several memorial activities on the border island and conduct a military drill in the area on Friday, calling it a “ridiculous farce,” Korean Central News Agency quoted a North Korean military spokesman as saying.

North Korea regretted that the 2010 shelling fell short of sending “the whole of Yeonpyeong Island to the bottom of the sea,” the spokesman said, adding that it will do so if “the warmongers perpetrate another provocation”.

The 2010 artillery attack left two South Korean marines and two civilians dead. North Korea claimed the attack was a defense against the South’s live-fire drill which resulted in shells falling on its side of the border in the Yellow Sea.

According to AFP, Seoul stressed that Friday’s military drill would not include any live-fire exercises.

South Korean President Lee Myung-bak visited the islands last month, reiterating the need to defend the maritime border “to the last man”.

This comes as the latest threat from Pyongyang amid mounting border tensions. Pyongyang recently threatened a direct attack after activists planned to send propaganda balloons across the border to the North.