News Digest

North Korean troops warned to ‘prepare for battle’ with South Korea

North Korean leader Kim Jong Un on Friday declared his frontline troops in a “quasi-state of war” and ordered them to prepare for battle a day after South Korea fired dozens of artillery rounds across the rivals’ border in response to what the South said were several rounds of North Korean artillery launched at the South. The North has made similar bombastic claims in the decades since the countries were divided following World War II, and the huge numbers of soldiers and military equipment stationed along the Koreas’ tense border mean the area is always essentially in a “quasi-state of war.” Still, the North’s declaration could signal trouble because South Korea has vowed to hit back with overwhelming strength should North Korea attack again.

Military commanders were urgently dispatched for operations to attack South Korean psychological warfare facilities if the South doesn’t stop operating them.

Pyongyang’s official Korean Central News Agency.

North Korea says it did not fire anything, a claim Seoul called nonsense. Kim ordered at an emergency military meeting that his troops would “enter a wartime state” and be fully ready for any military operations starting Friday evening, according to Pyongyang’s official Korean Central News Agency. The North has also given Seoul a deadline of Saturday evening to remove border loudspeakers that, after a lull of 11 years, have started broadcasting anti-Pyongyang propaganda. Seoul said the North fired Thursday across the Demilitarized Zone to back up an earlier threat to attack the South Korean loudspeakers. North Korea later said the South Korean shells landed near four military posts but caused no injuries. No one was reported injured in the South, either, though hundreds were evacuated from frontline towns. The loudspeaker broadcasts began after South Korea accused the North of planting land mines that maimed two South Korean soldiers earlier this month.