Koreas in propaganda and artillery exchange

SEOUL: South Korea fired dozens of shells at rival North Korea yesterday after the North lobbed several rounds across the border and threatened to take further action unless Seoul ends its loudspeaker broadcasts.

The North was backing up an earlier threat to attack the South Korean border loudspeakers that, after a lull of 11 years, have started broadcasting anti-Pyongyang propaganda.

The broadcasts began after South Korea accused the North of planting land mines that maimed two South Korean soldiers earlier this month.

North Korea first fired a single round believed to be from an antiaircraft gun, which landed at a South Korean border town yesterday afternoon.

About 20 minutes later, several more artillery shells fell on the southern side of the “demilitarised zone” dividing the two Koreas.

South Korea responded with dozens of 155mm artillery rounds, according to South Korean defence officials.

There were no reports of casualties, and North Korea didn’t respond militarily to South Korea’s artillery barrage.

But the North’s army later warned that it will take further military action within 48 hours if South Korea doesn’t pull down the loudspeakers, according to South Korea’s defence ministry.

South Korea raised its military readiness to its highest level.

Joint Chiefs of Staff spokesman Jeon Ha-kyu told a televised news conference that South Korea is ready to repel any additional provocation. Defence officials said South Korea will continue loudspeaker broadcasts despite the North Korean threats.

Authoritarian North Korea, which has also restarted its own propaganda broadcasts, is extremely sensitive to any criticism of the government run by leader, Kim Jong Un, whose family has ruled since the North was founded in 1948.

Pyongyang worries that the broadcasts could weaken Kim’s grip on absolute power, analysts say. The artillery exchange also comes during another point of tension between the Koreas: annual US-South Korean military drills that North Korea calls an invasion rehearsal.

Seoul and Washington say the drills are defensive in nature.

South Korean President Park Geun-hye convened an urgent National Security Council meeting and ordered the military to “resolutely” deal with any provocation.

South Korea’s Yonhap news agency says about 2 000 residents along the border were evacuated. – AP