North Korea ratchets up tensions after trading fire with South

His nuclear-armed regime, known for being both thin-skinned and fond of saber rattling, has warned South Korea it faces military action if it doesn’t turn off the propaganda loudspeakers by Saturday evening.

“The situation of the country is now inching closer to the brink of war,” Ji Jae Ryong, North Korean ambassador to China, told journalists in Beijing on Friday. He blamed South Korea for the situation.

That doesn’t necessarily mean war really is imminent: North Korea has used similar language in the past without hostilities breaking out. But South Korean Defense Minister Han Min-koo said Friday that North Korea was pushing the tensions “to the utmost level.”

“North Korea’s reaction is an indefensible crime that breaks a ceasefire agreement and the non-aggression treaty between North and South,” Han said in an address broadcast on South Korean television.

“If North Korea continues on provoking, our military — as we have already warned — will respond sternly, and end the evil provocations of North Korea,” he said, adding the country is working closely with the United States.

Tensions on the Korean Peninsula have been escalating since two South Korean soldiers were seriously wounded by landmines August 4 in the Demilitarized Zone.

South Korea and the U.S.-led U.N. Command in Korea concluded North Korea planted the mines on a patrol route in the southern part of the zone.

North Korea has denied responsibility and refused South Korean demands for an apology.

Seoul’s response was to resume cross-border propaganda broadcasts last week for the first time in more than a decade, a move virtually guaranteed to anger the regime in Pyongyang.

Sure enough, North Korea announced last weekend that the broadcasts were a declaration of war and threatened to blow up the loudspeakers.

On Thursday, South Korean officials said the North fired artillery shells over the Demilitarized Zone that separates the two countries. The South fired back several dozen shells of its own, according to the Defense Ministry.

No casualties were reported by either side.

South Korean officials said some residents of the area targeted by North Korea on Thursday had to be evacuated, although many have since returned.

A U.S. official told CNN that North Korea was believed to be targeting a loudspeaker position.