North Korea says army ready to attack rival | The Arkansas Democrat-Gazette

SEOUL, South Korea – North Korea said Sunday its frontline military units are ready to launch attacks on South Korea, increasing pressure on its rival, which it said flew drones and dropped leaflets over the capital Pyongyang dropped.

South Korea has refused to confirm whether it has sent drones, but warned it would severely punish North Korea if the safety of its citizens is compromised.

North Korea accused South Korea on Friday of launching drones to drop propaganda leaflets over Pyongyang three times this month and threatened to respond with force if it happened again.

In a statement carried by state media on Sunday, the North’s Defense Ministry said the military had issued a preliminary operation order to artillery and other army units near the border with South Korea to “fully prepare to open fire.”

An unidentified ministry spokesman said North Korea’s military has instructed relevant units to fully prepare for situations such as launching immediate attacks on unspecified enemy targets if South Korea again sends drones over the infiltrates the border, which could potentially lead to fighting on the Korean Peninsula, according to the statement.

The spokesperson said there are “serious military tensions on the Korean Peninsula” over the South Korean drone launches. In a separate statement later Sunday, the spokesman said the entire South Korean territory “could turn into piles of ash” after the North’s attack.

Also on Sunday, Kim Yo Jong, the powerful sister of North Korean leader Kim Jong-un, described the South Korean Defense Ministry’s warning that North Korea would face the end of its regime if it allowed South Korean nationals harm, as ‘suicidal’. She warned on Saturday that the discovery of a new South Korean drone “will certainly lead to a terrible disaster.”

North Korea often releases such fiery rhetoric during times of heightened hostility with South Korea and the US

Ties between the two Koreas remain tense since US-led diplomacy over ending North Korea’s nuclear program collapsed in 2019. North Korea has since worked hard to expand its nuclear arsenal and has repeatedly threatened to attack South Korea and the US with its weapons. But experts say North Korea is unlikely to launch a full-scale attack as its military is overtaken by combined US and South Korean forces.

Since May, North Korea has flown thousands of balloons containing waste into South Korea, in retaliation for South Korean activists piloting their own balloons with anti-Pyongyang leaflets. The South Korean military responded to the North Korean balloon campaign by restarting speakers at the border to broadcast propaganda and blare K-pop songs to North Korea.

North Korea is sensitive to outside criticism of Kim Jong-un’s government and his family’s dynastic rule.

FILE – North Korean soldiers work at the North’s military guard post as a North Korean flag flutters in the wind, seen from Paju, South Korea, near the border with North Korea, Thursday, Oct. 10, 2024. (AP Photo/ Ahn Young-joon, File)

FILE – North Korean balloons are seen from the Unification Observation Post in Paju, South Korea, near the border with North Korea, Friday, Oct. 4, 2024. (AP Photo/Lee ​​Jin-man, File)

FILE – In this North Korean government photo, North Korean leader Kim Jong Un, center, monitors artillery fire exercises in North Korea on March 7, 2024. (Korean Central News Agency/Korea News Service via AP, File)