Gold lower on dollar rise: South Korea warns North Korea it will 'sternly retaliate' to any further provocation

Two South Korean marines were killed and 17 others injured, as well as three civilians, after North Korea fired dozens of artillery shells onto a Yeonpyeong Island in the Yellow sea, 50 miles off the South's northwest coast in an area close to a disputed sea border.
The attack, which comes days after it emerged that North Korea was pressing ahead with its illegal nuclear programme, marks a serious further escalation of tensions on the Korean Peninsula.
A presidential statement said the shelling “constitutes a clear armed provocation.”..