Page 2 - ARUBATODDAY 22AUG,2015

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UP FRONTSaturday 22 August 2015
North Korea warns of war with South after artillery fire

ERIC TALMADGE started broadcasting anti- casts began after South as. South Korea responded South doesn’t tear down its
HYUNG-JIN KIM Pyongyang propaganda. Korea accused the North with dozens of 155-millime- loudspeakers by Saturday
Associated Press Failure, Pyongyang says, of planting land mines that ter artillery rounds, accord- evening. Observers say
PYONGYANG, North Ko- will result in further military maimed two South Korean ing to South Korean de- the North may need some
rea (AP) — North Korean action. Seoul has vowed to soldiers earlier this month. fense officials. save-facing measure to
leader Kim Jong Un on Fri- continue the broadcasts. North Korea denies this, South Korea’s military back down.
day declared his front-line The North’s media report too. warned Friday that North This is what happened in
troops in a “quasi-state of said that “military com- Authoritarian North Korea, Korea must refrain from December 2010, when
war” and ordered them to manders were urgently dis- which has also restarted its engaging in “rash acts” or North Korea backed off
prepare for battle a day patched for operations to own propaganda broad- face strong punishment, an earlier warning of cata-
after the most serious con-
frontation between the ri- South Korean army soldiers stand guard at Unification Bridge near the border village of Panmunom in Paju, South Korea, Friday, Aug.
vals in years. 21, 2015. South Korea fired dozens of shells Thursday at rival North Korea after the North lobbed several rounds across the world’s
South Korea’s military on most heavily armed border and threatened to take further action unless Seoul ends its loudspeaker broadcasts. The North denied it
Thursday fired dozens of fired any shots and warned of retaliation for what it called a serious provocation.
artillery rounds across the
border in response to what (AP Photo/Ahn Young-joon)
Seoul said were North Kore-
an artillery strikes meant to attack South Korean psy- casts, is extremely sensitive according to South Korea’s strophic retaliation after
back up a threat to attack chological warfare facilities to any criticism of its gov- Defense Ministry. South Korea defiantly went
loudspeakers broadcast- if the South doesn’t stop ernment, run by leader Kim South Korea raised its mili- ahead with live-fire drills
ing anti-Pyongyang propa- operating them.” Jong Un, whose family has tary readiness to its highest near the country’s disputed
ganda. South Korea’s Yonhap news ruled since the North was level. Joint Chiefs of Staff western sea boundary. A
The spike in tensions agency, citing an unidenti- founded in 1948. The loud- spokesman Jeon Ha-kyu month earlier, when South
prompted the U.S. and fied government source, speaker broadcasts are told a televised news con- Korea staged similar drills,
South Korea to briefly halt reported Friday that South taken seriously in Pyong- ference that South Korea the North reacted with
an annual military exercise Korean and U.S. surveil- yang because the govern- is ready to repel any addi- an artillery bombardment
that began this week, U.S. lance assets detected the ment does not want its sol- tional provocation. that killed four people on a
defense officials said Fri- movement of vehicles car- diers and residents to hear Escalation is a risk in any mil- South Korean border island.
day. North Korea had criti- rying short-range Scud and outsiders criticize human itary exchange between North Korea said it didn’t
cized the drills, calling them medium-range Rodong rights abuses and econom- the Koreas because after respond to the second drill
a preparation for inva- missiles in a possible prepa- ic mismanagement that two attacks blamed on because South Korea con-
sion, although the U.S. and ration for launches. South condemns many to abject Pyongyang killed 50 South ducted it in a less provoca-
South Korea insist they are Korea’s Defense Ministry poverty, South Korean ana- Koreans in 2010, South Ko- tive way, though the South
defensive in nature. said it could not confirm lysts say. rea’s military warned that said both drills were the
The North’s declaration the report. North Korea on Thursday any future North Korean at- same.
Friday is similar to its other North Korea said the South afternoon first fired a single tack could trigger strikes by The rivals also were at odds
warlike rhetoric in recent Korean shells fired Thursday round believed to be from South Korea that are three over the annual U.S.-South
years, including repeated landed near four military an anti-aircraft gun, which times as large. Korean military drills that
threats to reduce Seoul to a posts but caused no inju- landed near a South Kore- Many in Seoul are accus- began Monday. U.S. de-
“sea of fire,” and the huge ries. No one was reported an border town, Seoul said. tomed to ignoring or dis- fense officials said the exer-
numbers of soldiers and injured in the South, either, About 20 minutes later, counting North Korea’s cise had been halted amid
military equipment already though hundreds were three North Korean artillery repeated threats, but the the growing tensions with
stationed along the border evacuated from front-line shells fell on the southern latest have caused worry North Korea, but the Penta-
mean the area is always towns. side of the Demilitarized because of Pyongyang’s gon later said the exercise
essentially in a “quasi-state The loudspeaker broad- Zone dividing the two Kore- warning of strikes if the had resumed.q
of war.” Still, the North’s ap-
parent willingness to test
Seoul with military strikes
and its recent warning of
further action raise wor-
ries because South Korea
has vowed to hit back with
overwhelming strength
should North Korea attack
again.
Pyongyang says it did not
fire anything at the South,
a claim Seoul dismissed as
nonsense.
Kim Jong Un ordered his
troops to “enter a wartime
state” and be fully ready
for any military operations
starting Friday evening,
according to a report in
Pyongyang’s official Kore-
an Central News Agency.
The North has also given
Seoul a deadline of Sat-
urday evening to remove
border loudspeakers that,
after a lull of 11 years, have