Heavy Armaments Deployed in South Korea’s Border Area

The discovery came two days after North Korean leader Kim Jong-un placed frontline troops in full combat readiness, declaring a “quasi-state of war”.

South Korea’s military reported on Sunday that it has detected unusual troop and submarine movements in North Korea that indicated Pyongyang could be considering a possible strike.

Despite the high level dialogue, the potential for escalation or miscalculation remains, since both sides are in a state of maximum defense preparedness, ready for the possibility of a major military confrontation.

Top military aides to the leaders of the two Koreas met in Panmunjom, accompanied by high-ranking officials in charge of inter-Korean relations respectively. The emergency meeting of the National Security Council convened within a few hours of the North Korean shelling reiterated that any future provocations would be dealt with sternly.

“North Korea needs to cease broadcasts, whereas South Korea can not do it with out attaining something again”, Jeon stated.

But just hours before the deadline, the North proposed to hold talks to defuse the crisis.

Prior to the talks, North Korean state news outlet the Korea Central News Agency (KCNA) notably referred to South Korea by its official name – the Republic of Korea – for the first time since the current conservative party begun its administration in Seoul.

North Korea has constructed face-saving scenarios and turned back from the brink before, and both sides seem to have pulled their punches in the initial conflict, reportedly sending their shells into remote areas.

South Korea retaliated for the mine blasts by resuming propaganda broadcasts through loudspeakers for the first time since 2004.

South Korean Unification Minister Hong Yong-pyo and his DPRK counterpart Kim Yang Gon, director of the United Front Department, accompanied Kim and Hwang to the highest-level meeting since President Park took office in February 2013. On August 4, three landmines detonated on the southern section of the DMZ, wounding two South Korean soldiers on a patrol duty.

That would leave open the issue of the propaganda broadcasts, which Seoul had vowed to continue in the face of an ultimatum from Pyongyang to desist or face military action.

An official from South Korea’s presidential Blue House said after midnight that the talks were still going on, and that the delegates were taking a break.

While proud and incredibly sensitive to perceived slights from the outside, and therefore furious over the criticism being piped across the border on the South Korean loudspeakers, Pyongyang is reluctant to do anything to jeopardize the all-powerful position the Kims have enjoyed since founding the country in 1948.

“We have exercised our self-restraint for decades”, the North’s Foreign Ministry said in a statement Friday.

The official also says the North had doubled the strength of its front-line artillery forces since the start of the high-level talks early Saturday evening.

“This is an extremely grave situation“, a senior official at Seoul’s Defense Ministry told reporters, requesting anonymity citing intelligence.

North Korea’s warning was taken particularly seriously after Thursday’s exchange of fire along the western inter-Korean divide – though no casualties were reported.