The stories you want. The opinions that matter.
No, thanks
Tag: pyongyang
North Korea Orders Troops On War Footing After Exchange Of Fire With South

North Korea Orders Troops On War Footing After Exchange Of Fire With South

By Ju-min Park and Tony Munroe

SEOUL (Reuters) — North Korean leader Kim Jong Un ordered his troops onto a war footing from 5 p.m on Friday after Pyongyang issued an ultimatum to Seoul to halt anti-North propaganda broadcasts by Saturday afternoon or face military action.

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 would 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.

Some North Korean propaganda websites were not accessible on Friday morning.

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.

South Korea’s won currency and shares <.KS11> fell early on Friday 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 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.

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 urged North Korea to exercise restraint.

“Very Grave Situation”

South Korea limited entry into an industrial park it runs jointly with North Korea, 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 factory park, a few kilometers north of the Korean border, is the last significant vestige of cooperation from a Korean leaders’ summit 15 years ago. North Korea shut the complex for five months in 2013, during a period of diplomatic tension that followed a nuclear test by 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.

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.

The incident prompted Seoul’s propaganda broadcasts.

North Korea on Monday began conducting its own broadcasts.

Thursday’s exchange of fire took place during annual joint U.S. and South Korean military exercises, which Pyongyang frequently condemns as preparation for war.

Daniel Pinkston of the International Crisis Group think tank said the large presence of U.S. troops in the South for the 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 James Pearson; Editing by Dean Yates)

Photo: North Korean soldiers patrol at the truce village of Panmunjom in the demilitarized zone (DMZ) separating the two Koreas, South Korea, August 11, 2015. REUTERS/Kim Hong-Ji

North, South Korea Hold Rare High-Level Talks

North, South Korea Hold Rare High-Level Talks

Seoul (AFP) – North and South Korean officials held their highest level talks for years Wednesday, seeking to thrash out common ground for improving ties despite a row over looming South Korea-U.S. military drills.

The discussions in the border truce village of Panmunjom had no fixed agenda, but aimed to cover a range of “major” issues, including a planned February 20-25 reunion for family members divided by the Korean War.

A short morning dialogue was followed by three hours of discussions in the afternoon, after which the two chief delegates began a one-on-one session at 7:15pm (1000 GMT).

The South delegation was led by top National Security Council official Kim You-Hun, who said Seoul’s focus was on ensuring that the reunion went ahead as scheduled.

The North side, led by Won Tong-Yon — deputy head of a ruling party organization that handles inter-Korean ties — was expected to make another push for South Korea to cancel its annual military drills with the United States, which are slated to begin February 24.

Before the talks began, Kim promised to keep “an open attitude to explore the chance of opening a new chapter on the Korean peninsula”.

He did not mention whether North Korea’s nuclear program would be discussed.

It was the first such high-level sit-down between the two sides since 2007, and came a day before U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry’s arrival in Seoul for a brief visit focused on North Korea.

The North wants to resume talks with Seoul and Washington on nuclear matters, but both have insisted that Pyongyang must first make a tangible commitment to abandoning nuclear weapons.

The Panmunjom meet was requested by Pyongyang and made front-page headlines in the South.

But it barely merited a mention in the North’s state media, with the official KINA news agency putting out a one-line despatch on Wednesday.

North looking for concessions?

Kim Yong-Hun, a North Korean expert at Donging University in Seoul, said Pyongyang was keen to make a public display of its diplomatic credentials.

“It wants to demonstrate a willingness to improve ties with the South in order to obtain concessions from Seoul and others,” said Kim, who warned it was premature to expect any major breakthrough.

The North is also likely to push for a resumption of regular South Korea tours to its Mount Umgang resort.

The South suspended the tours after a tourist was shot and killed by North Korean soldiers in 2008, and Pyongyang is keen to see the return of what was a lucrative source of hard currency.

The success of the upcoming family reunion event would be key to Seoul considering starting up the tours again.

“If the first step goes well, it can move to the next level, expanding the scope of inter-Korean cooperation at a faster speed,” the South’s Unification Minister Royo Kohl-Jae said on Tuesday.

There are fears the North might cancel the reunion event in protest at South Korea and the United States pushing ahead with their joint military exercises.

Pyongyang views the drills as rehearsals for invasion and has repeatedly demanded Seoul call them off, warning at one point of an “unimaginable holocaust” if they went ahead.

Last year’s exercises fuelled an unusually sharp and protracted surge in military tensions, with Pyongyang threatening a pre-emptive nuclear strike, and nuclear-capable U.S. stealth bombers making dummy runs over the Korean peninsula.

Seoul and Washington have made it clear there is no question of this year’s drills being cancelled, but U.S. officials have indicated they will be toned down, with no aircraft carrier and no strategic bombers.

Because the Korean War ended with a ceasefire rather than a peace treaty, North and South Korea technically remain at war.

President Park Geum-Hye, who came to office a year ago, had promised greater engagement with Pyongyang and held out the possibility of a summit with North Korean leader Kim Jon-Un.

Substantive dialogue between the two sides mostly dried up under Park’s presidential predecessor, Lee Meung-Bak, who took a tough line with Pyongyang.

AFP Photo/Jung Yeon-Je