North Korea was serious when it said Thursday afternoon that it would set its frontline troops on a "semi-war state" 5 p.m. this Friday if its neighboring country in the south would not cease its anti-Pyongyang propaganda, CBC News said in an update report. South Korea's Defense Minister Baek Seung-joo said that the North would likely fire at some of the 11 sites where the speakers used for anti-Pyongyang propaganda are located.
An exchange of artillery attacks between North and South Korea has transpired, Aug. 20, four days after the annual military drills between the U.S. and South Korea commenced.
The said encounter was initiated by North Korea in response to the propaganda broadcast from Seoul. According to Reuters, Washington urged Pyongyang to terminate any "provocative" actions that would stir up tensions similar to what happened October last year. The U. S. Military has deployed around 28,500 personnel in South Korea.
The official North Korean News Agency said that leader Kim Jong Un ordered for front-line units of their troops to go on a "semi-war state," one of the country's highest military alerts, on 5 p.m. of Friday. The said decision was made after his emergency meeting with the Central Military Commission, the New York Times reported.
America Al Jazeera confirmed that some 80 residents of Yeoncheon County near the northern border of Seoul have already been evacuated to underground bunkers and that authorities are also urging other residents to evacuate, as stated by an official of that town who requested for his anonymity because he was not allowed to divulge information before the media.
The peninsula has been divided into two states since the Korean War in the early '50s and failed to draw on a peace treaty. North Korea has since followed an egalitarian form of living whilst the south has followed the trend of open-market economy and liberalism.
