N. Korean leader orders troops onto war footing, issues ultimatum

PanARMENIAN.Net - North Korean leader Kim Jong Un ordered his troops onto a war footing from 5 pm on Friday, Aug 21, after Pyongyang issued an ultimatum to Seoul to halt anti-North propaganda broadcasts by Saturday afternoon or face military action, according to Reuters.

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.

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 Defense Ministry via a joint military communications channel, was also uncharacteristically specific.

A South Korean military official said the broadcasts will continue.

The North Korean leader would put his troops on a "fully armed state of war" starting from 5 p.m. (0430 EDT) and had declared a "quasi-state of war" in frontline areas, Pyongyang's official KCNA news agency reported.

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.

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.

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.

Tension between the two Koreas has risen since early this month, when landmine explosions in the Demilitarized Zone (DMZ) of the border wounded two South Korean soldiers. Seoul accused North Korea of laying the mines, which Pyongyang has denied.