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 North Korean leader tells soldiers to be ‘fully battle-ready to launch surprise operations’ as already elevated cross-border tensions reach dangerous heights 
 
 North Korea’s leader Kim Jong-un has put his troops on a war footing and threatened “indiscriminate strikes” on the South, prompting “deep concern” in Washington over the latest rise in tensions on the Korean peninsula. 
 
 Kim said on Thursday evening his troops were in a “quasi-state of war” and warned of further military action unless South Korea stopped broadcasting cross-border propaganda and ended its “psychological warfare” against the North within 48 hours. 
 
 The deadline for the ultimatum is understood to expire at 5pm on Saturday. 
 
 
 
 The warning comes after the two countries exchanged artillery fire across their heavily armed border on Thursday. 
 
 K-pop against Kim Jong-un: Koreas resume radio broadcasts across DMZ Read more 
 
 The two Koreas have been divided by the heavily armed demilitarised zone since the end of the 1950-53 Korean war. That conflict ended with an armistice, but not a peace treaty, meaning the countries are still technically at war. 
 
 North Korea’s official Korean Central News Agency said on Friday that Kim, the third-generation dictator of North Korea’s founding dynasty, told an emergency meeting of the ruling party’s central military commission on Thursday night that troops would “enter a wartime state” and be prepared to carry out “indiscriminate strikes” against the South. 
 
 
 
 South Korea’s Yonhap news agency quoted the North Korean state broadcaster as saying: “Commanders of the Korean People’s Army were hastily dispatched to the frontline troops to command military operations to destroy psychological warfare tools if the enemy does not stop propaganda broadcasts within 48 hours and prepare [for] the enemy’s possible counteractions.” 
 
 North Korea has issued similar threats, usually to coincide with South Korea’s joint annual military drills with the US. Seoul and Washington say the exercises are strictly defensive, but North Korea regards them as a rehearsal for an invasion. 
 
 Thursday’s exchange of artillery fire was prompted by Pyongyang’s threat to destroy loudspeakers positioned along the southern side of the border that started broadcasting high-decibel anti-North Korean propaganda earlier this month for the first time since 2004. 
 
 Facebook Twitter Pinterest A South Korean loudspeaker. Photograph: South Korea defence ministry/EPA 
 
 Seoul said the broadcasts recommenced in retaliation for a landmine explosion that seriously injured two South Korean soldiers while they were out on patrol. 
 
 South Korean troops have been placed on maximum alert, while the president, Park Geun-hye, chaired an emergency meeting of her National Security Council and ordered a “stern response” to any further provocations. 
 
 North Korea first fired a single round believed to be from an anti-aircraft gun, which landed in a South Korean border town on Thursday afternoon, Seoul said. 
 
 About 20 minutes later, several more artillery shells fell on the southern side of the DMZ. 
 
 South Korea responded with dozens of 155mm artillery rounds, according to South Korean defence officials. 
 
 The exchange stopped there, but the North’s army warned in a message that it would take further military action if South Korea did not take down the loudspeakers within 48 hours. 
 
 North Korea, which initially denied firing at the South, later said the South Korean shells landed near four military posts but caused no injuries. There were no reports of injuries in the South, but about 2,000 people were evacuated from towns near the western border area. 
 
 In response, South Korea’s military said North Korea must refrain from engaging in “rash acts” or face strong punishment, according to Yonhap. 
 
 Defence officials said the loudspeaker broadcasts would continue, despite Pyongyang’s threats. 
 
 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 was ready to respond to any further North Korean provocations. 
 
 
 
 In a letter sent on Friday to North Korea’s general staff department of the Korean People’s Army, South Korea’s Joint Chiefs of Staff said: “We are urging the North to completely give up reckless acts,” Kyodo quoted the defence ministry in Seoul as saying. 
 
 
 
 “We are ready to strongly retaliate as a self-defence measure and all responsibilities that may arise from it will be fully on the North.” 
 
 US and UN officials said they were deeply concerned and were closely monitoring the situation. 
 
 The US state department urged Pyongyang to avoid provoking any further escalation and said it remained “steadfast” in its commitment to defending its ally South Korea, which hosts 28,500 US troops. 
 
 
 
 Japan’s top government spokesman, Yoshihide Suga, said Tokyo was “very concerned” about tensions on the Korean peninsula, but the defence minister, Gen Nakatani, said there were no signs of developments that could have an immediate impact on Japan’s security. 
 
 While cross-border skirmishes are not unheard of, most Korea watchers play down their potential to trigger a full-scale war. Moments of heightened tension are often characterised by threats and counter-threats, but rarely descend into serious violence. 
 
 There are exceptions, however. 
 
 The North recently declared that the cross-border broadcasts amounted to a “declaration of war” that would be met with “an all-out military action of justice” if they were not stopped. 
 
 
 
 Pyongyang claims that Seoul fabricated evidence of the landmines that injured two soldiers and demanded video proof. One soldier lost both legs and the other one leg. 
 
 
 
 In October 2014, North Korean troops opened fire after South Korean activists launched balloons carrying propaganda leaflets across the border. South Korea returned fire, but no casualties were reported. Later the same month, border guards from both countries exchanged gunfire. 
 
 
 
 In 2010, North Korea bombed the South Korean border island, killing four people. Earlier the same year the North was blamed for launching a torpedo attack on a South Korean naval vessel that killed 46 sailors. ||||| A South Korean soldier next to the loudspeakers near the border area between South Korea and North Korea last year in Yeoncheon, South Korea. Korea Pool-Donga Daily via Getty Images 
 
 South Korea is broadcasting news of a North Korean soldier's defection into North Korea, Yonhap News reported Sunday. 
 
 The broadcast, transmitted via loudspeakers installed near the Demilitarized Zone, began shortly after news broke of the soldier's November 13 defection, military officials said. 
 
 South Korea's loudspeaker system at the DMZ is used as a type of psychological warfare against North Korea, working to demoralize troops. 
 
 Several defectors listened to the broadcasts before attempting an escape, and one man who defected in June said he became "enamored" with South Korea's development from listening to the loudspeakers. 
 
 North Korean soldiers have heard in detail how a 24-year-old fellow soldier— who has been identified only by his family name, "Oh" — was shot as he defected and is now being treated in South Korea. 
 
 "The news about an elite soldier like a JSA guard having fled in a hail of bullets will have a significant psychological impact on North Korean border guards," a South Korean military spokesman told the newspaper Chosun Ilbo. 
 
 Last week, the United Nations Command released a video showing Oh crossing the border into South Korea as North Korean soldiers fired their weapons at him. 
 
 The soldier was found on the south side of the border village of Panmunjom, about 50 meters south of the Military Demarcation Line, having been shot five times. 
 
 According to Reuters, more than 1,000 North Koreans defect to South Korea every year via China, but it is unusual for defectors to cross the land border dividing the two Koreas, which have been in a technical state of war since 1953 when conflict ended in a truce rather than a peace treaty. 
 
 Loudspeaker diplomacy is popular on both sides of the DMZ 
 
 Chung Sung-Jun/Getty Images 
 
 This is not the first time South Korea, or North Korea, has used a loudspeaker system on its border to spread propaganda — the DMZ is actually one of the world's busiest regions for such broadcasts. 
 
 South Korea's propaganda program has used giant loudspeakers periodically since the Korean War but has become more subtle in recent years, according to the BBC. Broadcasts include weather reports, news from both Koreas and abroad, and discussion of life in South Korea. 
 
 The speakers have also played hours of K-pop music from South Korean musicians and groups over the years. 
 
 According to The Diplomat, the system went unused for 11 years. It was used briefly in August 2015 after North Korea injured two South Korean soldiers and was fully reinstated in January 2016 after North Korea's fourth nuclear test. 
 
 North Korea has indicated the broadcasts successfully demoralize its troops. 
 
 According to the BBC, North Korea also broadcasts content, but its broadcasts are usually harder to hear and usually blast strong condemnations of Seoul and its allies. 
 
 Yonhap News reports South Korea's loudspeakers are loud enough to be heard up to 20 kilometers, or about 12 miles, inside North Korea. ||||| PYONGYANG, North Korea (AP) — North Korean leader Kim Jong Un on Friday declared his frontline troops in a "quasi-state of war" and ordered them to prepare for battle a day after the most serious confrontation between the rivals in years. 
 
 South Korean children play as residents gather at a shelter in Yeoncheon, south of the demilitarized zone that divides the two Koreas, South Korea, Friday, Aug. 21, 2015. South Korea fired dozens of shells... (Associated Press) 
 
 South Korean residents gather at a shelter in Yeoncheon, south of the demilitarized zone that divides the two Koreas, South Korea, Friday, Aug. 21, 2015. South Korea fired dozens of shells Thursday at... (Associated Press) 
 
 South Korean army soldiers walk on the way to returning to their base after a patrol, in Paju, south of the demilitarized zone that divides the two Koreas, South Korea, Friday, Aug. 21, 2015. South Korea... (Associated Press) 
 
 South Korean residents gather at a shelter in Yeoncheon, south of the demilitarized zone that divides the two Koreas, South Korea, Friday, Aug. 21, 2015. South Korea fired dozens of shells Thursday at... (Associated Press) 
 
 South Korea's military on Thursday fired dozens of artillery rounds across the border in response to what Seoul said were North Korean artillery strikes meant to back up a threat to attack loudspeakers broadcasting anti-Pyongyang propaganda. 
 
 The North's declaration Friday is similar to its other warlike rhetoric in recent years, including repeated threats to reduce Seoul to a "sea of fire," and the huge numbers of soldiers and military equipment already stationed along the border mean the area is always essentially in a "quasi-state of war." Still, the North's apparent willingness to test Seoul with military strikes and its recent warning of further action raises worries because South Korea has vowed to hit back with overwhelming strength should North Korea attack again. 
 
 Pyongyang says it did not fire anything at the South, a claim Seoul dismissed as nonsense. 
 
 Kim Jong Un ordered his troops to "enter a wartime state" and be fully ready for any military operations starting Friday evening, according to a report in Pyongyang's official Korean Central News Agency. The North has also given Seoul a deadline of Saturday evening to remove border loudspeakers that, after a lull of 11 years, have started broadcasting anti-Pyongyang propaganda. Failure, Pyongyang says, will result in further military action. Seoul has vowed to continue the broadcasts. 
 
 The North's media report said that "military commanders were urgently dispatched for operations to attack South Korean psychological warfare facilities if the South doesn't stop operating them." 
 
 South Korea's Yonhap news agency, citing an unidentified government source, reported Friday that South Korean and U.S. surveillance assets detected the movement of vehicles carrying short-range Scud and medium-range Rodong missiles in a possible preparation for launches. South Korea's Defense Ministry said it could not confirm the report. 
 
 North Korea said the South Korean shells fired Thursday landed near four military posts but caused no injuries. No one was reported injured in the South, either, though hundreds were evacuated from frontline towns. 
 
 The loudspeaker broadcasts began after South Korea accused the North of planting land mines that maimed two South Korean soldiers earlier this month. North Korea denies this, too. 
 
 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. The loudspeaker broadcasts are taken seriously in Pyongyang because the government does not want its soldiers and residents to hear outsiders criticize what they call world-leading human rights abuse and economic mismanagement that condemns many to abject poverty, South Korean analysts say. 
 
 North Korea on Thursday afternoon first fired a single round believed to be from an anti-aircraft gun, which landed near a South Korean border town, Seoul said. About 20 minutes later, three North Korean artillery shells fell on the southern side of the Demilitarized Zone dividing the two Koreas. South Korea responded with dozens of 155-milimeter artillery rounds, according to South Korean defense officials. 
 
 South Korea's military warned Friday that North Korea must refrain from engaging in "rash acts" or face strong punishment, according to South Korea's Defense 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. 
 
 Escalation is a risk in any military exchange between the Koreas because after two attacks blamed on Pyongyang killed 50 South Koreans in 2010, South Korea's military warned that any future North Korean attack could trigger strikes by South Korea that are three times as large. 
 
 Many in Seoul are accustomed to ignoring or discounting North Korea's repeated threats, but the latest have caused worry because of Pyongyang's warning of strikes if the South doesn't tear down its loudspeakers by Saturday evening. Observers say the North may need some save-facing measure to back down. 
 
 This is what happened in December 2010, when North Korea backed off an earlier warning of catastrophic retaliation after South Korea defiantly went ahead with live-fire drills near the country's disputed western sea boundary. A month earlier, when South Korea staged similar drills, the North reacted with an artillery bombardment that killed four people on a South Korean border island. North Korea said it didn't respond to the second drill because South Korea conducted it in a less provocative way, though the South said both drills were the same. 
 
 The rivals are currently at odds also over annual U.S.-South Korean military drills that North Korea calls an invasion rehearsal. Seoul and Washington say the drills are defensive in nature. 
 
 On Friday, about 60 residents in the South Korean town near where the shell fell, Yeoncheon, were still in underground bunkers, Yeoncheon officials said. Yonhap reported that a total of about 2,000 residents along the border were evacuated Thursday. 
 
 The North's capital of Pyongyang was mostly business as usual Friday morning, although propaganda vans with loudspeakers broadcast the state media line that the country was in a "quasi-state of war" to people in the streets. 
 
 South Korea has said the two soldiers wounded from the mine explosions were on a routine patrol in the southern part of the DMZ that separates the two Koreas. One soldier lost both legs and the other one leg. Pyongyang says that Seoul fabricated its evidence on the land mines and demanded video proof. 
 
 The Koreas' mine-strewn DMZ 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. About 28,500 U.S. soldiers are deployed in South Korea to deter potential aggression from North Korea. 
 
 ___ 
 
 Kim reported from Seoul. AP writer Foster Klug in Seoul contributed to this story.
– Top government officials from the Koreas met over the weekend in the border town of Panmunjom to discuss keeping the peace, Reuters reports. But North Korea seems to be hedging its bets after a South Korean military official said that 50 of its northern foe's submarines have disappeared, the Yonhap news agency reports. "Seventy percent of North Korea's submarines left their bases, and their locations are not confirmed," an official told reporters yesterday, adding, per Chosun Ilbo, "Scores of subs that have left their bases on the eastern and western coasts are off our radar, which is an unprecedentedly serious situation." The main concern is that the subs could cross the Northern Limit Line (the maritime line in the sand between the two countries) or take on South Korean Navy vessels in surprise attacks from the rear, the paper notes. It adds that although North Korean submarines—described by the National Post as" largely outdated and technically obsolescent versions produced in the 1960s for the Soviet Union"—make a lot of noise (meaning they should be easy to find), there are so many missing it would be hard to keep track of them all. Also worrisome, per the military official: North Korea has apparently doubled its number of artillery troops along the DMZ since Friday, per Chosun Ilbo. "They seem ready to shoot," the official says. (Pyongyang declaring a "quasi-state of war" doesn't sound good.)