South Korean Defence Ministry on Monday (August 24) said their position is to deter North Korea’s provocation, as the isolated state had deployed twice the usual artillery strength at the border and had around 50 submarines away from base, the South’s ministry said.
Top officials from North and South Korea negotiated through a second straight night and into Monday morning in a marathon bid to defuse tensions that have brought the peninsula to the brink of armed conflict, even as both sides continued tough talk.
Seoul and Washington were reviewing the possibility of bringing in “strategic” U.S. military assets, South Korean Defence Ministry spokesman Kim Min-seok said, without elaborating.
During a standoff two years ago when the North threatened military action in response to joint exercises by U.S. and South Korean forces, the United States flew stealth bombers over the peninsula and sent an aircraft carrier to the area.
Kim said South Korea was prepared.
“Our military is well prepared, in strength and stands ready. But if North Korea wage provocation, our response will be merciless and they will truly feel sorry. Our position at this point is to deter the North’s provocation,” Kim said.
“Our military can use all our resources in order keep carrying out anti-submarine patrols. And we think that our people do not need to be concerned about it,” Kim added.
File footage released by North Korea’s state-run television KRT in 2014 shows North Korean leader Kim Jong Un watching military drills including submarine exercises in North Korea.
The negotiations at the Panmunjom truce village inside the Demilitarised Zone (DMZ) began on Saturday (August 22) evening, shortly after North Korea’s deadline passed for Seoul to halt anti-Pyongyang propaganda broadcasts or face military action. They broke up before dawn on Sunday (August 23) and restarted that afternoon.
South Korean President Park Geun-hye’s national security adviser, Kim Kwan-jin, and Unification Minister Hong Yong-pyo are representing the South in the talks. Hwang Pyong So, the top military aide to the North’s leader, Kim Jong Un, and Kim Yang Gon, a veteran North Korean official in inter-Korean affairs, are representing Pyongyang.
The current tensions began early this month when two South Korean soldiers were wounded by landmines along the border. The North denies laying the mines. Days later, Seoul began its propaganda broadcasts in random three-hour bursts from 11 banks of loudspeakers, including news reports and K-pop music from the South, resuming a tactic both sides halted in 2004.
The crisis escalated on Thursday (August 20) when the North fired four shells into the South, according to Seoul, which responded with a barrage of 29 artillery rounds. North Korea declared a “quasi-state of war” in front-line areas and made an ultimatum for Seoul to halt its broadcasts.
Park has said anti-North propaganda broadcasts would continue unless Pyongyang took responsibility for landmine explosions.