N. Korea leader visits frontline islands

SEOUL - North Korean leader Kim Jong-Un has made his third visit in a year to highly fortified frontline islands on the disputed maritime border with South Korea, state media said Tuesday.

His latest tour of Jangjae Island and Mu Island was less dramatic than his last visit during soaring military tensions in March, when he threatened to "wipe out" the nearby South Korean island of Baengnyeong Kim inspected newly built barracks, military positions and homes for soldiers and their families, the North's Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) said.

He also received a detailed report on "enemy positions" and "targets" on the equally fortified South Korean islands across the border.

The two Koreas' Yellow Sea border off the west coast of the peninsula was the scene of deadly naval clashes in 1999, 2002 and 2009.

In 2010, a South Korean naval vessel, the Cheonan, was sunk in the area with the loss of 46 lives, and later that year North Korea shelled the island of Yeonpyeong, killing four people.

The mood on the Korean peninsula has improved in recent months as the two Koreas have taken tentative steps to revive a number of suspended cross-border projects, but tensions remain.

On Friday, North Korea cancelled a visit by a US envoy, citing its anger over a recent South Korea-US joint military exercise.