The chief of South Korea's Marine Corps on Tuesday inspected front-line troops along the tense western sea border with North Korea.

The Marine Corps' commander, Lt. Gen. Lee Sang-hoon, called for full readiness and a swift response against any provocations by the North during the visit to the islands of Yeonpyeong and Udo, the Marine Corps said in a statement. 

North Korea positions artillery units on its western border islets, such as Mudo, Galdo, Arido and Jangjaedo, a few kilometers north of Yeonpyeong Island, the statement said.

They shelled Yeonpyeong in November 2010, leaving four South Koreans dead. It followed its torpedo attack in March on a South Korean warship that killed 46 sailors. 

"If North Korea provokes again, we should completely shell their islets to remove them from the map for good to ensure North Korea will never dare to provoke again," Lee said.

On Monday, Chief of Naval Operations Adm. Um Hyun-seong guided an anti-submarine drill in the East Sea, aboard a P-3 maritime patrol aircraft, widely known as a "submarine killer."

The weeklong exercise ending Tuesday is designed to assess and improve South Korea's capabilities to strike North Korean submarines and intercept its missiles, the Navy said.

This year alone, Pyongyang has conducted two underground nuclear tests and fired off some two dozen ballistic missiles. Such developments have escalated concerns that the North is approaching its stated goal of developing a nuclear-tipped long-range ballistic missile that can hit parts of the US mainland. (Yonhap)