North
Korean leader Kim Jong-un has ordered his frontline troops to be ready
for war, against a backdrop of rising military tensions between his
country and South Korea.
The announcement follows an exchange of artillery shells across the two countries’ heavily fortified border.
The Demilitarised Zone is a legacy of the
1950-53 Korean War, which ended with an armistice, not a peace treaty,
leaving the Korean Peninsula still technically in a state of war.
The North’s official KCNA news agency
said the move came during an emergency meeting late on Thursday of the
powerful Central Military Commission of which Kim is the chairman.
During the meeting, Kim ordered
frontline, combined units of the Korean People’s Army (KPA) to “enter a
wartime state” from Friday 5pm local time (08:00 GMT).
The troops should be “fully battle ready
to launch surprise operations” while the entire frontline should be
placed in a “semi-war state,” KCNA quoted him as saying.
The CMC meeting came hours after the two
Koreas traded artillery fire on Thursday, leaving no apparent casualties
but pushing already elevated cross-border tensions to dangerously high
levels.
The KPA followed up with an ultimatum
sent via military hotline that gave the South 48 hours to dismantle
loudspeakers blasting propaganda messages across the border or face
further military action.
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