North Korea dials up threat of military attack

kessben August 29, 2015

327 2 minutes read

SEOUL — North Korea said Friday that its military is ready to attack South Korea unless the neighboring nation halts anti-Pyongyang propaganda broadcasts, ratcheting up the confrontation at the border.
Ji Jae Ryong, the North’s ambassador to China, announced at the embassy in Beijing that evening that the region along the border was in a “quasi-state of war.” The last such pronouncement came in 1993, when North Korea announced its intention to withdraw from the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty.
North Korea’s foreign ministry said Friday evening that it would not rule out full-scale war, the country’s central news agency reported.
China, through its own foreign ministry, distanced itself from the statement. The country “opposes any action that may escalate tension,” spokeswoman Hua Chunying said.
North Korea’s move marked the latest escalation along the border. Friction began to intensify Aug. 4, when two South Korean soldiers lost their legs to a land mine in the so-called Demilitarized Zone between the two nations. Believing North Korea to be responsible, the South retaliated, resuming loudspeaker broadcasts of anti-North propaganda across the border after 11 years of silence.

The broadcasts, which detail the lives of those who have escaped to the South, riled North Korea. Anxious that the content could cause instability for the regime, North Korean forces fired four shots across the border Thursday. South Korean forces retaliated with 29 shots using much stronger artillery. Although no injuries resulted, the reaction from the South was harsher than usual.

South Korean President Park Geun-hye has taken an unyielding stance on relations with the North since coming into office. Although the administration does not rule out talks with the North Korean leadership, its basic stance is to deny any large-scale aid unless the country makes progress on nuclear nonproliferation.
“We absolutely cannot tolerate aggression from the North,” Park told South Korean military commanders Friday. North Korea maintains that it will take military action if the propaganda broadcasts do not end by 5 p.m. local time Saturday. After that, a North-South clash will grow more likely, said Cheong Seong-chang of the Sejong Institute. On the other hand, South Korea was very careful not to seriously injure anyone in the North during Thursday’s skirmish, and the North knows the South’s intentions, said a researcher at Kyungnam University.
Source – CNN