North Korea has claimed that joint military exercises by the US and South Korea are pushing the region to "the brink of war".

Four people were killed when the North launched a surprise artillery attack on the South Korean island of Yeonpyeong.

The North Korean news agency, KCNA, climed that "the Korean Peninsula is inching closer to the brink of war due to the reckless plan of those trigger-happy elements to stage again war exercises targeted against the [North]."

The military exercises had been planned in advance of the shelling, but have still angered both the North and its ally China.