Fri Aug 21, 2015 | 2:43 AM EDT
By Ju-min Park and James Pearson
SEOUL (Reuters) -
North Korean leader Kim Jong Un ordered his troops onto a war footing from 5 p.m on Friday after his government issued an ultimatum to Seoul to halt anti-Pyongyang propaganda broadcasts by Saturday afternoon or face military action.
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.
Tension escalated on Thursday when North
Korea fired shells into South Korea to protest
against the broadcasts. The South responded
with its own artillery barrage. Both sides said
there were no casualties or damage in their
territory.
The North's shelling came after it had
demanded last weekend that South Korea end
the broadcasts or face military action - 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
communications channel, was also
uncharacteristically specific.
The deadline is around 5 p.m. (0400 EDT) on Saturday in Seoul. Baek told parliament the broadcasts would continue unless the North accepted responsibility and apologized for recent landmine explosions that wounded two South Korean soldiers along the DMZ. Pyongyang has denied it was responsible.
"There is a high possibility that North Korea will attack loudspeaker facilities," Baek said. In the North, Kim would put his troops on a "fully
armed state of war" starting from 5 p.m. and
had declared a "quasi-state of war" in frontline
areas, Pyongyang's official KCNA news agency reported.
There were indications the North was preparing to fire short-range missiles, the
South's Yonhap news agency said, citing an
unnamed government source.
The North often fires rockets into the sea during annual U.S.- South Korean military exercises, which are currently under way.
Pyongyang's declaration of a semi-state of war
was its first use of such terminology since the
North shelled a South Korean island in 2010,
Yonhap said.
Two South Korean marines and two civilians were killed in that incident, which followed another ultimatum delivered by the North.
The precise nature of the latest ultimatum was a bit unusual, said John Delury, a North Korea
expert at Yonsei University in Seoul.
"North Korea is a constant font of generalized
threats, but putting a time stamp on it is a little
bit different. It puts both Seoul and Pyongyang's necks on the chopping board.
Someone has to blink here," he said. South Korea's won currency KRW= and shares .KS11 fell 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
based in South Korea, said it was closely
monitoring the situation. 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 called on North Korea to exercise restraint.
"VERY GRAVE SITUATION"
Despite the tensions, life went on as normal in
both capitals.
"People are going about their business
completely as usual," Morten Traavik, a
Norwegian who organized a two-show visit to
Pyongyang by Slovenian avant-garde rock
band Laibach, said from the North Korean
capital.
"There have of course been news bulletins on
North Korean television announcing the North
Korean military's pretty bombastic statements,"
he said by phone.
Fishing was suspended around three South
Korean islands off the west coast, the
coastguard said. Most of the nearly 800 South
Koreans ordered to leave their dwellings near
the border on Thursday had returned home,
although one village remained evacuated, local officials said.
South Korea limited entry into an industrial park it runs jointly with North Korea near the border, 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 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.
Seoul began blasting anti-North Korean
propaganda from loudspeakers on the border
on Aug. 10, resuming a tactic that both sides
had stopped in 2004, after the landmine
explosions.
North Korea on Monday began conducting its
own broadcasts. Daniel Pinkston of the International Crisis Group think tank said the large presence of U.S. troops in the South for the military exercises could reduce the risk of escalation.
"This is a bad time to pick a fight with the South while it has all these resources there," he said.
(Additional reporting by Choonsik Yoo and
Hooyeon Kim; Writing by Tony Munroe; Editing
by Dean Yates)
By Ju-min Park and James Pearson
SEOUL (Reuters) -
North Korean leader Kim Jong Un ordered his troops onto a war footing from 5 p.m on Friday after his government issued an ultimatum to Seoul to halt anti-Pyongyang propaganda broadcasts by Saturday afternoon or face military action.
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.
Tension escalated on Thursday when North
Korea fired shells into South Korea to protest
against the broadcasts. The South responded
with its own artillery barrage. Both sides said
there were no casualties or damage in their
territory.
The North's shelling came after it had
demanded last weekend that South Korea end
the broadcasts or face military action - 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
communications channel, was also
uncharacteristically specific.
The deadline is around 5 p.m. (0400 EDT) on Saturday in Seoul. Baek told parliament the broadcasts would continue unless the North accepted responsibility and apologized for recent landmine explosions that wounded two South Korean soldiers along the DMZ. Pyongyang has denied it was responsible.
"There is a high possibility that North Korea will attack loudspeaker facilities," Baek said. In the North, Kim would put his troops on a "fully
armed state of war" starting from 5 p.m. and
had declared a "quasi-state of war" in frontline
areas, Pyongyang's official KCNA news agency reported.
There were indications the North was preparing to fire short-range missiles, the
South's Yonhap news agency said, citing an
unnamed government source.
The North often fires rockets into the sea during annual U.S.- South Korean military exercises, which are currently under way.
Pyongyang's declaration of a semi-state of war
was its first use of such terminology since the
North shelled a South Korean island in 2010,
Yonhap said.
Two South Korean marines and two civilians were killed in that incident, which followed another ultimatum delivered by the North.
The precise nature of the latest ultimatum was a bit unusual, said John Delury, a North Korea
expert at Yonsei University in Seoul.
"North Korea is a constant font of generalized
threats, but putting a time stamp on it is a little
bit different. It puts both Seoul and Pyongyang's necks on the chopping board.
Someone has to blink here," he said. South Korea's won currency KRW= and shares .KS11 fell 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
based in South Korea, said it was closely
monitoring the situation. 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 called on North Korea to exercise restraint.
"VERY GRAVE SITUATION"
Despite the tensions, life went on as normal in
both capitals.
"People are going about their business
completely as usual," Morten Traavik, a
Norwegian who organized a two-show visit to
Pyongyang by Slovenian avant-garde rock
band Laibach, said from the North Korean
capital.
"There have of course been news bulletins on
North Korean television announcing the North
Korean military's pretty bombastic statements,"
he said by phone.
Fishing was suspended around three South
Korean islands off the west coast, the
coastguard said. Most of the nearly 800 South
Koreans ordered to leave their dwellings near
the border on Thursday had returned home,
although one village remained evacuated, local officials said.
South Korea limited entry into an industrial park it runs jointly with North Korea near the border, 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 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.
Seoul began blasting anti-North Korean
propaganda from loudspeakers on the border
on Aug. 10, resuming a tactic that both sides
had stopped in 2004, after the landmine
explosions.
North Korea on Monday began conducting its
own broadcasts. Daniel Pinkston of the International Crisis Group think tank said the large presence of U.S. troops in the South for the military exercises could reduce the risk of escalation.
"This is a bad time to pick a fight with the South while it has all these resources there," he said.
(Additional reporting by Choonsik Yoo and
Hooyeon Kim; Writing by Tony Munroe; Editing
by Dean Yates)
Semper Fidelis
![[Image: SyAa0qj.png]](https://i.imgur.com/SyAa0qj.png)
USMC
USMC
Nemo me impune lacessit