North Korea orders troops to prepare for war

South Korea has said the two soldiers wounded in the mine explosions were on a routine patrol in the southern part of the DMZ that separates the two Koreas. Pyongyang is demanding they be turned off by Saturday evening.

Kim’s order “is a wierd idea as a result of North Korea lives in a type of perpetual quasi-state of conflict – although this might be vital because it’s directed on the troops, not the entire nation”, stated John Delury, a professor at Seoul’s Yonsei College. Final Friday, after South Korean activists despatched propaganda leaflet-bearing balloons throughout the border, North Korea threatened to show Seoul right into a “sea of fireside”.

North Korea additionally warned Seoul on Friday that it might take “army motion” if the South didn’t halt the broadcasts by 5 p.m. Saturday, in response to South Korean media.

The North denied it fired any shots and warned of retaliation for what it called a serious provocation.

South Korean President Park Geun-hye canceled a scheduled event on Friday and visited a military command post, giving an address reportedly meant to calm and reassure her nervous people.

There were indications the North was preparing to fire short-range missiles, the South’s Yonhap news agency said, citing an unnamed government source.

“That exercise has resumed as planned”, Assistant Secretary of Defense for Asian and Pacific Security Affairs David Shear told reporters at the Pentagon on Friday. But they’re now back on. According to Korea’s KBS News, they can be heard from as far as 24 kilometers away (about 15 miles) at night and 10 kilometers away (about 6 miles) during the day, potentially reaching North Korean civilians who live near the DMZ and the soldiers stationed in the vicinity.

Its 48-hour ultimatum, delivered in a letter to the South Korean Defence Ministry, was also uncharacteristically specific.

“This is a bad time to pick a fight with the South while it has all these resources there”, he said.

North Korea fired four shells into South Korea on Thursday, according to Seoul, in apparent protest against the broadcasts.

Tensions have escalated since South Korea accused rival North Korea of shelling a border town on Thursday and retaliated with dozens of artillery rounds.

The U.S. backed South Korea’s decision to reject North Korea’s ultimatum and keep its soldiers on high alert ahead of the North’s deadline for an attack. Neither side has reported injuries or damage.

In the nearby border city of Paju, residents were asked to stay home, officials said.

Global leaders are growing increasingly anxious that the conflict on the Korean Peninsula could heat up, as both sides are known nuclear powers. They notably exchanged artillery fire over their disputed maritime border in 2010 and machine-gun fire over land in October.

But Thursday’s clash was unusual because of the type of weapons used around the demilitarized zone, says Alison Evans, a senior analyst at IHS Country Risk. Artillery shells sailed back and forth across the border, with no casualties reported.

Amid the heightened tensions, North Korea’s connection to the global Internet went down twice Friday, according to Dyn Research, a U.S-based private Internet-monitoring service. The cause of the disruption was not immediately clear.