TV footage by YTN showed plumes of smoke still rising from the island. Island residents said they had been told to evacuate.
Yonhap news agency reported four soldiers were wounded.
Mountain fires were spotted across the island and residents reported that power and communications had been lost.
Provocations by the North had been anticipated by some analysts tracking the series of dramatic developments over the past two years during the decline in the health of North Korean dictator Kim Jong-Il and the designation of his youngest son Kim Jong-Un as his heir apparent in September.
The U.S. was rocked by a report this weekend that North Korea has built a new uranium enrichment facility producing material that can be used for making nuclear weapons.
President Lee Myung-bak ordered officials to make sure that the firing wouldn’t escalate, according to Yonhap, quoting a presidential official.
A South Korean Joint Chiefs of Staff official told AP that dozens of rounds of artillery landed on the island and in the sea. The official said South Korea’s military is on alert, but provided not futher details.
Tensions between the two Koreas have sharply increased since the sinking in March of the South Korean warship Cheonan, in which 46 sailors died.
Seoul, backed by an international investigation, blamed a North Korean torpedo. Pyongyang has denied responsibility.
North Korea watchers here have suggested both that the sinking was intended to strengthen the stature of the young and untested Kim Jong-Un, and that the sinking may have been his initiative, according to reports by East-Asia-Intel.com .
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