North Korea Issues Military Threat As Tensions With South Korea Rise
Source: CNN
By Jethro Mullen, Kathy Novak and Greg Botelho, CNN
Updated 6:35 PM ET, Fri August 21, 2015
Paju, South Korea (CNN)North Korea outlined an ultimatum Friday to its southern neighbor: Stop the "provocations" and "psychological warfare" or pay the price.
"If South Korea does not respond to our ultimatum," North Korean U.N. ambassador An Myong Hun told reporters, "our military counteraction will be inevitable and that counteraction will be very strong."
North Korea's regime, known for being both thin-skinned and fond of saber rattling, has made plenty of threats before. In fact, articulating derogatory and intimidating words about South Korea and the United States has been more the norm than not for years.
What makes this case different, though, is that two South Korean soldiers have been seriously wounded (by landmines August 4 in the Demilitarized Zone) and that there's been firing back-and-forth since then. An said Friday that "all the (North Korean) frontline large combined units (have) entered into a wartime state ... fully armed to launch any surprise operations and finish their preparations for action."
Specifically, this threat is tied to cross-border propaganda loudspeakers that South Korea resumed using last week for the first time in a decade. Pyongyang is demanding they be turned off by Saturday evening.
Read more: http://www.cnn.com/2015/08/21/asia/koreas-tensions/
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