vNorth Korea warned it was prepared to risk 'all-out war' as leader Kim Jong-Un put his frontline troops on combat readiness to back up an ultimatum for South Korea to halt propaganda broadcasts across the border by this afternoon.
The warning came as military tensions on the divided Korean peninsula soared following a rare exchange of artillery fire on Thursday that put the South Korean army on maximum alert.
'Our military and people are prepared to risk an all-out war not just to simply respond or retaliate, but to defend the system our people chose,' North Korea's foreign ministry said in a statement early Saturday on the official KCNA news agency, according to the South's Yonhap news agency.
'The situation has reached the verge of war and can no longer be reversed.'
In New York, Pyongyang's deputy UN ambassador An Myong-Hun also warned 'if South Korea does not respond to our ultimatum, our military counteraction will be inevitable, and that counteraction will be very strong'.
'The situation on the Korean peninsula inches close to the brink of a war,' An told reporters.
South Korean Vice Defence Minister Baek Seung-joo said it was likely the North would fire at some of the 11 sites where the loudspeakers are set up on the South's side of the Demilitarised Zone (DMZ) which separates the two countries.
A North Korean sympathiser with close knowledge of the regime claimed Pyongyang was ready to 'go nuclear' if South Korea doesn't respond to the demands.
Kim Myong-chol, executive director of The Centre for North Korea-US Peace and a Japan-based mouthpiece for the regime, warned that Kim Jong Un was ready to use nuclear weapons.
He told The Daily Telegraph: 'If the loudspeakers are still in place at 5pm tomorrow, then the North will attack with artillery, from the air and with land forces.
'The North does not want a war, but South Korea and the US want war. It depends on the situation and the reactions of South Korea and the US, but it could be a nuclear war.'
U.S. and South Korean surveillance detected the movement of North Korean short-range and medium-range missiles in preparation for possible launches, according a government source in Seoul.
The North's declaration is much like its other war rhetoric in recent years, including repeated threats to reduce Seoul to a 'sea of fire' and launch missile strikes on the United States.
But the North's willingness to test Seoul with military strikes and its recent warning of further action have increased fears in the region because South Korea has vowed to hit back with overwhelming strength should North Korea attack again.
Tension on the divided peninsula escalated on Thursday when North Korea fired shells into South Korea to protest against the loudspeaker broadcasts from the Korean border.
The South responded with its own artillery barrage. Both sides said there were no casualties or damage in their territory.
On Friday, residents evacuated in the South Korean town near where the shell fell, Yeoncheon, returned home, officials said. Yonhap reported that a total of about 2,000 residents along the border were evacuated Thursday.
Seoul began blasting anti-North Korean propaganda on the border earlier this month days after landmine explosions wounded two South Korean soldiers along the DMZ, resuming a tactic that both sides had stopped in 2004.
Baek told parliament the South's broadcasts would continue unless the North accepted responsibility and apologised for the mines. Pyongyang has denied it was responsible.
'There is a high possibility that North Korea will attack loudspeaker facilities,' he said.
The North's action came after it had demanded that South Korea end the broadcasts by Saturday afternoon or face military operation – a relatively rare case of it following up on its frequent threats against the South.
Its 48-hour ultimatum to halt the broadcasts, delivered in a letter to the South Korean Defence Ministry via a joint military communication channel, was also uncharacteristically specific.
A South Korean military official said the broadcasts would continue.
The North Korean leader has put his troops on a 'fully armed state of war' and had declared a 'quasi-state of war' in frontline areas, Pyongyang's official KCNA news agency reported.
The North's media report said that 'military commanders were urgently dispatched for operations to attack South Korean psychological warfare facilities if the South doesn't stop operating them.'
South Korea's Yonhap news agency, citing an unidentified government source, reported that South Korean and U.S. surveillance assets detected the movement of vehicles carrying short-range Scud and medium-range Rodong missiles in a possible preparation for launches.
South Korea's Defense Ministry said it could not confirm the report. Some North Korean propaganda websites were not accessible on Friday morning.
Kim Yong Chol, director of the general reconnaissance bureau of the North Korean army, in what was described as an 'emergency situation briefing' for diplomats and military attaches in Pyongyang, said all front-line units are on full war readiness.
He gave no details on what kind of military retaliation North Korea would consider appropriate 'punishment' for the South.
In Beijing, at the North Korean Embassy, Ambassador Ji Jae Ryong told reporters that South Korea's psychological warfare had 'gone beyond the limits of tolerance.'
Pyongyang's declaration of a semi-state of war was the first use of such terminology since the North shelled a South Korean island in 2010, the Yonhap News Agency said.
Two South Korean marines and two civilians were killed in the incident.
Since the 1950-53 Korean War ended in a truce, not a peace treaty, Pyongyang and Seoul have often exchanged threats and dozens of soldiers have been killed, yet the two sides have always pulled back from all out war.
But the renewed hostility is a further blow to South Korean President Park Geun-hye's efforts to improve North-South ties, which have been virtually frozen since the deadly 2010 sinking of a South Korean navy ship, which Seoul blames on Pyongyang.
South Korea's won currency and shares fell early on Friday as the heightened tensions added volatility to markets already hit by concerns about the global economy.
The U.S. military, which has 28,500 personnel in South Korea, said it was closely monitoring the situation.
'The safety of our personnel and families is paramount and we will take prudent measures to ensure their well-being,' it said in a statement without elaborating.
Washington earlier urged Pyongyang to halt any 'provocative' actions in the wake of Thursday's exchange of fire, the first between the two Koreas since last October.
Japan urged North Korea to exercise restraint.
South Korea limited entry into an industrial park it runs jointly with North Korea, but the complex, seen as a barometer for the state of inter-Korean relations, continued to operate.
'This is now a very grave situation. So we need to operate Kaesong Industrial Complex with necessary but minimum personnel,' said Jeong Joon-hee, spokesman for the South's Unification Ministry, which handles inter-Korean affairs.
The factory park, a few kilometres north of the Korean border, is the last significant vestige of cooperation from a Korean leaders' summit 15 years ago.
North Korea shut the complex for five months in 2013, during a period of diplomatic tension that followed a nuclear test by Pyongyang.
Seoul began blasting anti-North Korean propaganda from loudspeakers on the border on August 10, resuming a tactic that both sides had stopped in 2004.
Tension between the two Koreas has risen since early this month, when landmine explosions in the Demilitarised Zone (DMZ) of the border wounded two South Korean soldiers.
Seoul accused North Korea of laying the mines, which Pyongyang has denied. The incident prompted Seoul's propaganda broadcasts.
North Korea on Monday began conducting its own broadcasts.
Thursday's exchange of fire took place during annual joint U.S. and South Korean military exercises, which Pyongyang frequently condemns as preparation for war. Those exercises have now paused. 'It's a pre-scheduled pause,' anofficial said on condition of anonymity, adding that it was 'common practice' in such long exercises to stop them temporarily and examine lessons learned.
Daniel Pinkston of the International Crisis Group think tank said the large presence of U.S. troops in the South for the exercises could reduce the risk of escalation.
Source:DailyMail
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