Teacher:In this task, you are given a text of many news articles seperated by special token "|||||". Your task is to summarize them.
Teacher: Now, understand the problem? Solve this instance: SEOUL (Reuters) - North Korea has set no-fly and no-sail zones off its east and west coasts that indicates it will conduct major military drills, but test firing of short-to-medium-range missiles cannot be ruled out, South Korea's Yonhap news agency said on Wednesday. 
  
 "The North's military ... is preparing large-scale combined military exercises so it may have blocked off the areas for nautical firing or fighter jet firing exercises," Yonhap quoted a South Korean government source as saying. 
  
 "But the firing of missiles cannot be ruled out." 
  
 One of North Korea's top generals, in a rare appearance on state television on Tuesday, said Pyongyang had torn up its armistice deal with Washington and threatened military action against the U.S. and South Korea if military drills between the two countries continued. The military exercises began on March 1. 
  
 (Reporting by Choonsik Yoo and Jack Kim; Editing by Nick Macfie) ||||| The armistice that ended the Korean War in 1953 is, at best, a fragile thing: The countries overseeing it have formally accused each other of more than 1.2 million violations. 
  
 Visitors take souvenir pictures in front of an exhibit depicting South Korean soldiers during the Korean War at the Korea War Memorial Museum in Seoul, South Korea, Wednesday, March 6, 2013. North Korea's... (Associated Press) 
  
 South Korean army soldiers patrol along a barbed-wire fence at the Imjingak Pavilion near the border village of Panmunjom, which has separated the two Koreas since the Korean War, in Paju, north of Seoul,... (Associated Press) 
  
 Visitors take their souvenir pictures at the Imjingak Pavilion near the border village of Panmunjom, which has separated the two Koreas since the Korean War, in Paju, north of Seoul, South Korea, Wednesday,... (Associated Press) 
  
 A man looks at a banner of defenders of freedom from South Korea and the United States during the Korean War at the Korea War Memorial Museum in Seoul, South Korea, Wednesday, March 6, 2013. North Korea's... (Associated Press) 
  
 Visitors take their souvenir pictures near a military barbed-wire fence at the Imjingak Pavilion near the border village of Panmunjom, which has separated the two Koreas since the Korean War, in Paju,... (Associated Press) 
  
 South Korean army soldiers patrol along a barbed-wire fence near a military post at the Imjingak Pavilion near the border village of Panmunjom, which has separated the two Koreas since the Korean War,... (Associated Press) 
  
 Visitors take their souvenir pictures in front of a barbed-wire fence at the Imjingak Pavilion near the border village of Panmunjom, which has separated the two Koreas since the Korean War, in Paju, north... (Associated Press) 
  
 A cleaner rides a cart in front of an exhibit depicting the 1953 cease-fire agreement of the Korean War at the Korea War Memorial Museum in Seoul, South Korea, Wednesday, March 6, 2013. North Korea's... (Associated Press) 
  
 South Korean army soldiers patrol by the ribbons, forming a shape of tthe Korean peninsula, along a barbed-wire fence at the Imjingak Pavilion near the border village of Panmunjom, which has separated... (Associated Press) 
  
 But North Korea's threat to scrap the ceasefire on Monday still matters because the armistice is the key document blocking hostilities on the Korean Peninsula, which technically has remained in a state of war for six decades. 
  
 If North Korea follows through on its threat to nullify the document that set up the heavily armed buffer zone between the rival Koreas, it could drive badly frayed relations even lower. The threat comes as diplomats at the U.N. negotiate sanctions aimed at punishing Pyongyang for its recent nuclear test and as allies Washington and Seoul plan massive war games set to start Monday. 
  
 Here's a look at what the North's threat could mean for the Korean Peninsula's fragile peace: 
  
 ON THE GROUND: 
  
 The armistice signed on July 27, 1953, set up an apparatus meant to govern a cease-fire ending the war. It can be seen most clearly at the Demilitarized Zone between north and south. 
  
 The armistice called for the creation of a military demarcation line and the DMZ around it _ a 4-kilometer-wide "buffer zone," with one side controlled by the American-led U.N. Command and the other side by North Korea. 
  
 The armistice prohibited "hostile acts" within or across the zone. As a hotline between the sides, it set up a military truce commission at the Panmunjom village that straddles the DMZ. 
  
 By scrapping the armistice, North Korea would be effectively refusing to recognize the DMZ, which is a violent place even with the rules of the armistice in place: Hundreds of troops serving under the U.N. command have died in the buffer zone over the years. 
  
 "North Korea wants to show it can attack South Korea at any time," said analyst Cheong Seong-jang at the private Sejong Institute in South Korea. "The chance for limited war ... has increased." 
  
 The South Korean military says North Korea has violated the armistice by deploying machine guns inside the DMZ, shooting at U.N. troops along the border and digging infiltration tunnels. 
  
 North Korea has accused the U.S. and South Korea of deploying heavy weapons and combat personnel inside the DMZ, conducting war maneuvers targeting the North and firing at North Korean fishing boats near the western sea boundary. 
  
 North Korea said this week that its Korean People's Army Supreme Command will stop all activities at the "Panmunjom mission of the KPA, which was tentatively established and operated by it as a negotiating body for establishing a peace-keeping mechanism on the Korean Peninsula." 
  
 The North also vowed to cut off a phone line linking North Korea and the United States at Panmunjom. 
  
 FEAR IN SEOUL, TALKS IN WASHINGTON? 
  
 American and South Korean analysts see the threat as an attempt to win direct aid-for-disarmament talks with Washington by raising fears of war on the peninsula. North Korea wants such negotiations in part to secure much-needed aid and to force the removal of 28,500 U.S. troops stationed in the South. 
  
 "By disavowing the armistice, North Korea is sending a reminder about just how flimsy the peace regime on the Korean Peninsula is," said John Delury, a professor at Yonsei University in Seoul. "In Pyongyang's mind anyhow, this serves to reinforce their argument that formal peace talks and a new security architecture is a prerequisite to full denuclearization." 
  
 But it also stirs fear among South Koreans. 
  
 People in Seoul are famously unimpressed with North Korean bluster, but the DMZ is only an hour's drive from bustling Seoul. 
  
 "The North Korean threat is a blade that cuts at both the United States and at South Koreans," said Lee Ho-chul, a North Korea analyst at Incheon National University in South Korea. "For South Koreans, it's a threat that North Korean forces will now ignore the military demarcation line. That can cause worries among ordinary South Koreans." 
  
 Actually tearing up the cease-fire could remove an important psychological shield for South Koreans as they pursue building one of Asia's premier economies. 
  
 "I'm worried North Korea may be trying to provoke a war," restaurant worker Lee Hui-sook said in Seoul when asked about the threat. "I feel much more insecure than in the past about whether my country can handle North Korea." 
  
 BLUFF OR PROMISE? 
  
 Since the 1990s, North Korea has frequently threatened to scrap the armistice. In 1996 it followed such a threat by sending hundreds of armed troops into Panmunjom. South Korea boosted its surveillance to its highest level in 15 years, and the troops later withdrew. 
  
 The context of the latest threat, however, is important. 
  
 This one follows five years of abysmal ties between Koreas, during which Seoul's hardline president was met by North Korean nuclear and rocket tests. Attacks blamed on Pyongyang in 2010 killed 50 South Koreans. 
  
 New President Park Geun-hye is settling into office in Seoul after making promises to re-engage the North, but with a vague policy about how to get that done. 
  
 The North's latest statement is unusually specific, warning of "lighter and smaller nukes" and "surgical strikes," and is seen as noteworthy by Seoul because a senior military official from the Korean People's Army Supreme Command issued the threats on state TV. 
  
 But North Korea has made surprisingly specific threats in the past, including vowing to destroy the headquarters of major South Korean newspapers last year, and then later backed away. 
  
 "They make such statements a few times in the average year," Andrei Lankov, a professor at Kookmin University in Seoul, said. "Perhaps it makes them feel good. But practical impact? Zero." 
  
 MILITARY REACTION IN SEOUL 
  
 South Korea's military is taking the North's threats seriously. 
  
 Army. Maj. Gen. Kim Yong-hyun, an official with the Joint Chiefs of Staff, said in nationally televised remarks Wednesday that North Korea was told that the drills starting Monday, which involve 10,000 South Korean and 3,500 U.S. forces, are defensive. 
  
 He also indicated that North Korea and its military leadership will suffer if there are any attacks. 
  
 "If North Korea goes ahead with provocations and threatens the lives and safety of South Koreans," he said, "our military will strongly and sternly retaliate against the command and its supporting forces." ||||| SEOUL, South Korea — The South Korean military warned on Wednesday that if it was provoked by North Korea , it would strike the North’s “command leadership,” escalating a war of words and hinting at an attack on a North Korean headquarters. 
  
 The day before, the North Korean People’s Army threatened to attack the United States and its ally South Korea with “lighter and smaller nukes,” apparently in reaction to the United Nations Security Council’s consideration of new, tougher sanctions against the North over the nuclear test it conducted in February. 
  
 Bellicose statements from North Korea are nothing new, but their tone has grown bolder recently after apparently successful recent tests of a long-range rocket and a nuclear device, and especially in the past week, as the United States and South Korea began their annual joint military exercises. 
  
 South Korea usually does not respond to North Korean tongue-lashings, but it did on Wednesday, dismissing the North’s threat as mere propaganda. 
  
 Still, with officials and analysts here worried that North Korea might provoke a deadly skirmish sometime soon, to shake the new government of President Park Geun-hye in the South and to destabilize the region, the South Korean military called a news conference on Wednesday to deliver a categorical public warning. 
  
 “If North Korea attempts a provocation that threatens the lives and security of our people, our military will forcefully and decisively strike not only the origin of provocation and its supporting forces but also its command leadership,” said Maj. Gen. Kim Yong-hyun, chief operations officer at the military’s Office of the Joint Chiefs of Staff. “We make it clear that we are all prepared.” 
  
 The two Koreas’ front-line units exchanged artillery fire in 2010 after North Korea shelled a South Korean-controlled island; that same year, a South Korean Navy corvette was sunk and 46 sailors were killed by an explosion that the South attributed to a North Korean torpedo attack. 
  
 South Korea has since vowed to strike back with a deadlier force if North Korea provokes it again. 
  
 Despite such warnings, however, officials worry that the North’s young leader, Kim Jong-un, or ambitious generals under him may be thinking that possessing nuclear weapons will allow them to provoke the South with impunity. 
  
 “We read their confidence in nuclear weapons behind their aggressive, more provocative rhetoric and actions recently,” said Chang Yong-seok, an analyst at the Institute for Peace and Unification Studies at Seoul National University. “There is a higher possibility of North Korea attempting a provocation, something that would involve limited causalities but have all the impact that one expects from an armed provocation.” |||||
Student:
In a rare response to North Korea's bluster, South Korea's military today warned that it is ready to strike at the North's "command leadership" if provoked—a term that could be referring to Kim Jong Un, the New York Times reports. The warning follows the North's threat yesterday to cancel the Korean War ceasefire over new UN sanctions. Typically, Seoul considers Pyongyang's threats to be propaganda and ignores them; this response marks a significant ratcheting up of tensions between the two countries, the Times notes. Here's the statement: "If North Korea attempts a provocation that threatens the lives and security of our people, our military will forcefully and decisively strike not only the origin of provocation and its supporting forces but also its command leadership. We make it clear that we are all prepared." "We read [North Korea's] confidence in nuclear weapons behind their aggressive, more provocative rhetoric and actions recently," says one expert, and the Times reports that officials echo that sentiment. And, Reuters reports, Pyongyang has set no-fly and no-sail zones, indicating it is preparing to conduct major military drills off its east and west coasts—or even test-fire missiles, warns the South. For more, the AP takes a look today at what a cancellation of the Korean War armistice would really mean. For one thing, the already-violent Demilitarized Zone between North and South could become even more violent—and it's located just an hour from Seoul.