N. Korea threatens military action if South continues loudspeaker broadcasts

North Korea did not return fire but warned Seoul in a letter that it would take military action if the South did not stop the loudspeaker broadcasts along the border within 48 hours, the South’s Defense Ministry said.

South Korea fired dozens of shells Thursday at rival North Korea after the North lobbed a single rocket round at a South Korean town near the world’s most heavily armed border, the South’s Defense Ministry said.

A South Korean military official said the broadcasts would continue.

South Korea’s military, which said it fired dozens of artillery rounds in response, raised its alert status to the highest level.

South Korean President Park Geun-hye told top defense officials to “react firmly” to North Korean provocations, a spokesman quoted her as saying.

North Korea has fired a shell across the border into South Korea, prompting Seoul to respond with artillery fire, according to reports.

The North denied any role and threatened “indiscriminate” shelling of the loudspeaker units.

The North also said the Central Military Commission of the ruling Workers Party convened an emergency meeting Thursday night to discuss the situation.

The cross-border propaganda warfare followed accusations from Seoul that Pyongyang had planted land mines on the South Korean side of the Demilitarized Zone that maimed two South Korean soldiers earlier this month.

“Such provocative actions heighten tensions, and we call on Pyongyang to refrain from actions and rhetoric that threaten regional peace and security”, U.S. State Department spokesperson Katina Adams said. Pyongyang also restarted its own loudspeakers aimed at the South.

As a preventive measure, local South Korean residents in Yeoncheon county some 60 kilometer north of Seoul were ordered to evacuate their homes for nearby shelters.

There are no details on any of the injuries in the border town or in the North, but media outlets in South Korea reported that towns on the South Korean side of the border were being evacuated.

It also vowed retaliatory strikes after Seoul and Washington refused to call off their annual Ulchi Freedom military drill, which kicked off Monday and role plays responses to a full-scale North Korean invasion.

The North is believed to have been aiming at a loudspeaker in a border town that has been blaring anti-Pyongyang broadcasts recently, South Korean media said.

In October last year, North Korea border guards attempted to shoot down some helium balloons launched across the land border by activists and carrying thousands of anti-North leaflets.

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.

Thursday’s exchange of fire is the first between the two countries since October.

“Putting forward a nonexistent pretext that our military fired a shell toward the South, warmaniacs of the South Korean puppet military engaged in the reckless act”, the North’s military said, calling the South’s firing “a grave military provocation that can never be tolerated”.

The Koreas’ mine-strewn DMZ is a legacy of the 1950-53 Korean War, which ended with an armistice, not a peace treaty.