Smoke rises in a mock chemical explosion, as South Korea holds an anti-terror drill at a subway station on Monday.

Tensions are high in the Korean peninsula as North Korea celebrates the 101st birthday anniversary of the birth of its founder Kim Il-Sung, with some fearing the event would come with a display of military might.

Monday's exercise simulated a bomb attack by North Korea.

Security personnel also practiced how to respond to attackers with explosives and evacuate people in an emergency.

Elsewhere in Seoul, demonstrators burned effigies of North Korean leader Kim Jong-un, his father Kim Jong-il and the North's founder.

Pyongyang has threatened for weeks to attack the United States, South Korea and Japan after new U.N. sanctions were imposed in response to its latest nuclear arms test in February.

The United States has offered talks, but on the pre-condition that the North abandons its nuclear weapons ambitions.