Pyongyang issues ROK loudspeaker ultimatum

DPRK puts its military on war footing as tension escalates over propaganda broadcasts

Kim Jong-un, top leader of the Democratic People's Republic of Korea, ordered the nation's troops onto a war footing from 5pm on Friday after Pyongyang issued an ultimatum to Seoul to halt anti-DPRK propaganda broadcasts by Saturday afternoon or face military action.

Baek Seung-joo, deputy defense minister of the Republic of Korea, said it was likely the DPRK would fire at some of the 11 sites where the loudspeakers are set up on the ROK's side of the demilitarized zone which seperates the two states.

Tension escalated on Thursday when the DPRK fired shells into the ROK to protest against the broadcasts. The ROK responded with a barrage of 29 artillery shells.

Both sides said there were no casualties or damage in their territory, an indication that the rounds were fired as warning shots and not intended to inflict harm.

Neither side wants escalation into war, analysts said.

"The fact that both sides' shells didn't damage anything means they did not want to spread an armed clash. There is always a chance for war but that chance is very, very low," said Yang Moo-jin, a professor specializing in DPRK studies in Seoul.

Since the 1950-53 Korean War ended in a truce, not a peace treaty, Pyongyang and Seoul have often exchanged threats and dozens of soldiers have been killed, yet the two sides have always pulled back from all-out war.

But the renewed hostility is a further blow to ROK President Park Geun-hye's efforts to improve ties, which have been virtually frozen since the 2010 sinking of a ROK navy ship amid disputed circumstances.

Park cancelled a scheduled event on Friday and made a visit to a military command post, dressed in army camouflage.

The DPRK's shelling came after it had demanded last weekend that the ROK end the broadcasts or face military action - a relatively rare case of following up on its frequent threats against the ROK.

Its 48-hour ultimatum to halt the broadcasts, delivered in a letter to the ROK Defense Ministry via a joint military communications channel, was also uncharacteristically specific. The deadline is around 5 pm on Saturday in Seoul.

Seoul began blasting anti-DPRK propaganda from loudspeakers on the border on Aug 10, days after landmine explosions wounded two ROK soldiers along the DMZ, resuming a tactic that both sides had stopped in 2004.

The DPRK began conducting its own broadcasts on Monday.

Baek told parliament the ROK's broadcasts would continue unless the DPRK accepted responsibility and apologized for the mines. Pyongyang has denied it was responsible.

"There is a high possibility that the DPRK will attack loudspeaker facilities," Baek said.

In the DPRK, Kim would put the nation's troops on a "fully armed state of war" starting from 5 pm and had declared a "quasi-state of war" in frontline areas, Pyongyang's Korean Central News Agency reported.

There were indications the DPRK was preparing to fire short-range missiles, the ROK's Yonhap news agency said, citing an unnamed government source.

(China Daily 08/22/2015 page11)