South Korea will punish the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK) for any new provocations, Prime Minister Kim Hwang-sik said Friday.

The remark came at a ceremony marking the anniversary of the DPRK's 2010 artillery bombardment of Yeonpyeong Island, which killed two South Korean marines and two civilians and dealt a blow to already strained relations between the rival Koreas.

The DPRK has said the shelling was a self-defense measure against joint naval exercises between South Korea and the United States near the western sea border called the Northern Limit Line, the scene of deadly naval skirmishes.

The DPRK has refused to acknowledge the NLL, which was drawn unilaterally by the US-led United Nations Command (UNC) at the end of the 1950-53 Korean War.

"North Korea (DPRK) is doing all it can to delegitimize the Northern Limit Line by beefing up forces near the west coast and sending fishing boats to the border,"the prime minister said in his speech at the War Memorial.

Separately, South Korea is set to stage military drills targeting the DPRK.

The Marine Corps is poised to conduct a simulated command post exercise and a field exercise on the border island under various scenarios of DPRK attacks.