They fired live shells at the flag of the DPRK, producing a tragicomedy, the paper said, and went on:

This provocation triggered off anger and criticism from Pyongyang.

This happened during a drill staged to mark the 62nd anniversary of the Korean War started by them.

Washington and Seoul "commemorated" the day of the Korean people's tragedy with such provocation.

That day the U.S. forces and the south Korean army staged a joint exercise by mobilizing tanks, fighters and helicopters.

Pyongyang termed it a hostile action betraying the U.S. intention to put the whole of Korea under its control.

In the final analysis, the U.S. and south Korea escalated tensions.

This cannot but make Russia and China uneasy, a researcher of the Center for Korean Studies of the Institute of the Far East of the Russian Academy of Sciences commented when interviewed by the paper.