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Kim Jong-Un at an emergency meeting on Thursday. Photo: AFP

'Be ready for war', Kim Jong-un tells North Korea's troops after issuing ultimatum to end South's propaganda broadcasts

North Korea

North Korean leader Kim Jong Un yesterday declared his frontline troops in a "quasi-state of war" and ordered them to prepare for battle a day after the most serious confrontation between the rivals in years.

South Korea's military on Thursday fired dozens of artillery rounds across the border in response to what Seoul said were North Korean artillery strikes meant to back up a threat to attack loudspeakers broadcasting anti-Pyongyang propaganda.

The North's declaration yesterday is similar to its other warlike rhetoric in recent years, including repeated threats to reduce Seoul to a "sea of fire," and the huge numbers of soldiers and military equipment already stationed along the border mean the area is always essentially in a "quasi-state of war."

Still, the North's apparent willingness to test Seoul with military strikes and its recent warning of further action raise worries because South Korea has vowed to hit back with overwhelming strength should North Korea attack again. Pyongyang says it did not fire anything at the South, a claim Seoul dismissed as nonsense.

Kim Jong Un ordered his troops to "enter a wartime state" and be fully ready for any military operations starting yesterday evening, according to Pyongyang's official Korean Central News Agency.

The North’s official KCNA news agency said the move came during an emergency meeting late Thursday of the powerful Central Military Commission of which Kim is the chairman.

During the meeting, Kim ordered frontline, combined units of the Korean People’s Army (KPA) to “enter a wartime state” from 5pm today.

The troops should be “fully battle ready to launch surprise operations” while the entire frontline should be placed in a “semi-war state,” KCNA quoted him as saying.

The CMC meeting came hours after the two Koreas traded artillery fire on Thursday, leaving no apparent casualties but pushing already elevated cross-border tensions to dangerously high levels.

The KPA followed up with an ultimatum sent via military hotline that gave the South 48 hours to dismantle loudspeakers blasting propaganda messages across the border or face further military action.

The ultimatum expires on Saturday at 5pm.

The South’s defence ministry dismissed the threat and Seoul has vowed to continue the broadcasts.

The North's media report said "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 South Korean and US surveillance assets detected the movement of vehicles carrying short-range Scud and medium-range Rodong missiles in a possible preparation for launches.

Thursday’s artillery exchange in a western quarter of the border came amid heightened tensions following mine blasts that maimed two members of a South Korean border patrol earlier this month and the launch this week of a major South Korea-US military exercise that infuriated Pyongyang.

Seoul said the mines were placed by North Korea and responded by resuming high-decibel propaganda broadcasts across the border, using loudspeakers that had lain silent for more than a decade.

The South Korean military said the North side fired first on Thursday and that it retaliated with dozens of 155mm howitzer rounds.

The CMC backed the army’s ultimatum and also ratified plans for “a retaliatory strike and counterattack on the whole length of the front”, KCNA said.

The Unification Ministry announced it was restricting access to the North-South’s joint industrial zone at Kaesong.

Only South Koreans with direct business interests in Kaesong - which lies 10km over the border inside North Korea - would be allowed to travel there, a ministry spokesman said.

The South Korean Joint Chiefs of Staff urged the KPA to refrain from any “reckless acts”. South Korean television broadcast images of President Park Geun-Hye wearing army fatigues as she addressed a meeting of top military commanders outside Seoul. “Any provocations by North Korea will not be tolerated,” Park told the gathering.

China expressed “deep concern” over the situation and urged "relevant parties to remain calm and restrained”.

“China follows the situation of the Korean Peninsula very closely, and is deeply concerned about what has happened recently,” foreign ministry spokesperson Hua Chunying said in a statement posted to the ministry’s website.

“China staunchly safeguards regional peace and stability and opposes any action that may escalate tension,” Hua said, adding that China was willing to work with “relevant parties to jointly ensure peace and stability of the Korean Peninsula”.

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The Kaesong industrial estate hosts about 120 South Korean firms employing some 53,000 North Korean workers and is a vital source of hard currency for the cash-strapped North.

Restricting access will likely be seen as a thinly veiled threat by Seoul to shut the complex down completely if the situation at the border escalates further.

Direct exchanges of fire across the inter-Korean land border are extremely rare - mainly, analysts say, because both sides recognise the risk for a sudden and potentially disastrous escalation between two countries that technically remain at war.

South Korean troops were placed on maximum alert, while President Park Geun-Hye chaired an emergency meeting of her National Security Council and ordered a “stern response” to any further provocations.

The CMC meeting in Pyongyang insisted that the situation would only de-escalate if South Korea turned off the propaganda loudspeakers.

According to the KCNA report, military commanders were despatched to the frontline to prepare “to destroy the means for psychological warfare... and put down possible counter-actions.”

The United States and United Nations both said they were following the situation on the Korean peninsula with deep concern.

The US State Department urged Pyongyang to avoid provoking any further escalation and said it remained “steadfast” in its commitment to defending ally South Korea.

Associated Press, Agence France-Presse

This article appeared in the South China Morning Post print edition as: Kim declares 'quasi-state of war' as tensions rise
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