North Korean army “all set” to move against the South
The North Korean army is “fully prepared” to take military action against South Korea if South Korean activists continue their campaign to send propaganda leaflets to North Korea, state media reported.
Pyongyang said that the General Staff of the Korean People’s Army (DPRK) is studying the “plan of action” to return to the zones demilitarized in 2018, and threatened to “turn the border line into a fortress.”
“Our army will quickly and thoroughly implement any decisions and orders of the party and government,” writes KCNA, quoting the North Korean military.
The scale of the actions that Pyongyang is ready to take is not yet clear. However, he already threatened to break the inter-Korean military agreement, which was signed in 2018 in order to reduce tension on the border. The pact laid the foundation for the creation of demilitarized border buffers between two Korean countries. Some time ago, Seoul and Pyongyang even disarmed some of the advanced guard posts. This was a symbolic act against the backdrop of a warming relationship between two Koreas, as well as denuclearization that North Korea was tuned to in exchange for lifting sanctions.
But the latest statement implies that Pyongyang will consider ignoring buffer zones and, at a minimum.
The military also said they would go to areas near border so North Korea could conduct a “large-scale leaflet drop” into South Korea, apparently in revenge for activists actions who spread propaganda against Pyongyang.
In response to the threats made by the South Korean Ministry of Defense, it called on its northern neighbors to comply with the 2018 agreement.
“We are serious about the situation. Our military maintains readiness to respond to any situation, ”the South Korean Defense Ministry said at a briefing.
Activist groups led by defectors regularly sent out propaganda leaflets along with food, money, a mini radio, and flash drives with South Korean dramas and news to North Korea via balloons or bottles dumped into the river. The leaflets criticized the government of Kim Jong-un, human rights violations and nuclear ambitions of North Korea.
Last week, Kim Yo Jeong, an influential sister of North Korean leader Kim Jong-un and a politician, called South Korea “the enemy” and announced the North would destroy the “useless” inter-Korean communications center. Pyongyang launched a threat by blowing up a communications department in Quesong.
Experts argue that the crisis between North and South Korea can pick up steam amid the fact that North Korean negotiations with the United States on nuclear issue and the lifting of sanctions are at an impasse.
