AUGUST 21 (Eagle News) — North Korean leader Kim Jong Un on Thursday (August 20) convened an emergency meeting as the two Koreas exchanged fire.
North Korea’s state-run television KRT on Friday (August 21) released still photographs of its leader Kim Jong Un and North Korean high ranking military officials at an emergency meeting of Central Military Commission of the Workers’ Party of Korea (WPK).
South Korea fired a barrage of artillery rounds into North Korea on Thursday after the North shelled across the border to protest against anti-Pyongyang propaganda broadcasts by Seoul, moves that raised tensions on the divided peninsula.
North Korea did not return fire but warned Seoul in a letter that it would take military action if the South did not stop the broadcasts along the border.
“General Staff of Korean People’s Army on Thursday sent ultimatum to South Korean puppet Defence Ministry that KPA would launch a strong military action unless South Korea stop broadcasting towards the North and dismantle psychological warfare within 48 hours,” KRT news reader said.
During the emergency meeting, Kim would put his troops on a “fully armed state of war” starting from 5 p.m. (0830GMT) on Friday and had declared a “quasi-state of war” in frontline areas, KRT added.
Such language is often used by North Korea in times of tension with the South.
Seoul began blasting anti-North Korean propaganda from loudspeakers on the border on August 10, resuming a tactic that both sides had stopped in 2004.
The two Koreas have remained in a technical state of war since the 1950-1953 Korean War ended in a truce, not a peace treaty.