North Korean leader Kim Jong-un yesterday declared his frontline troops are 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.
North Korea’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.”
Photo: EPA
Still, North Korea’s apparent willingness to test Seoul with military strikes and its recent warning of further action has raised concern because South Korea has vowed to hit back with overwhelming strength should North Korea attack again.
Pyongyang said it did not fire anything at South Korea, a claim Seoul dismissed as nonsense.
Kim ordered his troops to “enter a wartime state” and be fully ready for any military operations starting yesterday evening, according to a report by Pyongyang’s official Korean Central News Agency. North Korea has also given Seoul a deadline of today to remove border loudspeakers that, after a lull of 11 years, have started broadcasting anti-Pyongyang propaganda.
Failure would result in military action, Pyongyang said, but Seoul has vowed to continue the broadcasts.
A North Korean media report said that “military commanders were urgently dispatched for operations to attack South Korean psychological warfare facilities if the South does not stop operating them.”
South Korea’s Yonhap news agency, citing an unidentified government source, yesterday reported that 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. The South Korean Ministry of National Defense said it could not confirm the report.
North Korea said South Korean shells fired on Thursday landed near four military posts, but caused no injuries. No one was reported injured in South Korea, either, although hundreds were evacuated from frontline towns.
The loudspeaker broadcasts began after South Korea accused North Korea of planting land mines that maimed two South Korean soldiers earlier this month, which Pyongyang denies.
North Korea on Thursday afternoon first fired a single round believed to be from an anti-aircraft gun, which landed near a South Korean border town, Seoul said. About 20 minutes later, three North Korean artillery shells fell on the southern side of the Demilitarized Zone dividing the two nations. South Korea responded with dozens of 155mm artillery rounds, according to South Korean defense officials.
South Korea’s military yesterday said that North Korea must refrain from engaging in “rash acts” or face strong punishment, according to South Korea’s Defense Ministry. South Korea raised its military readiness to its highest level. South Korean Joint Chiefs of Staff spokesman Jeon Ha-kyu told a televised news conference that South Korea is ready to repel any additional provocation.
AGING: As of last month, people aged 65 or older accounted for 20.06 percent of the total population and the number of couples who got married fell by 18,685 from 2024 Taiwan has surpassed South Korea as the country least willing to have children, with an annual crude birthrate of 4.62 per 1,000 people, Ministry of the Interior data showed yesterday. The nation was previously ranked the second-lowest country in terms of total fertility rate, or the average number of children a woman has in her lifetime. However, South Korea’s fertility rate began to recover from 2023, with total fertility rate rising from 0.72 and estimated to reach 0.82 to 0.85 by last year, and the crude birthrate projected at 6.7 per 1,000 people. Japan’s crude birthrate was projected to fall below six,
US President Donald Trump in an interview with the New York Times published on Thursday said that “it’s up to” Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) what China does on Taiwan, but that he would be “very unhappy” with a change in the “status quo.” “He [Xi] considers it to be a part of China, and that’s up to him what he’s going to be doing, but I’ve expressed to him that I would be very unhappy if he did that, and I don’t think he’ll do that. I hope he doesn’t do that,” Trump said. Trump made the comments in the context
SELF-DEFENSE: Tokyo has accelerated its spending goal and its defense minister said the nation needs to discuss whether it should develop nuclear-powered submarines China is ramping up objections to what it sees as Japan’s desire to acquire nuclear weapons, despite Tokyo’s longstanding renunciation of such arms, deepening another fissure in the two neighbors’ increasingly tense ties. In what appears to be a concerted effort, China’s foreign and defense ministries issued statements on Thursday condemning alleged remilitarism efforts by Tokyo. The remarks came as two of the country’s top think tanks jointly issued a 29-page report framing actions by “right-wing forces” in Japan as posing a “serious threat” to world peace. While that report did not define “right-wing forces,” the Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs was
PREPAREDNESS: Given the difficulty of importing ammunition during wartime, the Ministry of National Defense said it would prioritize ‘coproduction’ partnerships A newly formed unit of the Marine Corps tasked with land-based security operations has recently replaced its aging, domestically produced rifles with more advanced, US-made M4A1 rifles, a source said yesterday. The unnamed source familiar with the matter said the First Security Battalion of the Marine Corps’ Air Defense and Base Guard Group has replaced its older T65K2 rifles, which have been in service since the late 1980s, with the newly received M4A1s. The source did not say exactly when the upgrade took place or how many M4A1s were issued to the battalion. The confirmation came after Chinese-language media reported
RSS