North Korea & South Korea on the verge of War, as Jong-un order his frontline troops

North Korean leader Kim Jong-un has ordered his frontline troops onto a war footing as military tensions with South Korea soar following a rare exchange of artillery shells across the heavily fortified border.
The North's official KCNA news agency said the move came during an emergency meeting of the powerful Central Military Commission (CMC), which is chaired by Mr Kim.

During the meeting, Mr Kim ordered frontline, combined units of the Korean People's Army (KPA) to "enter a wartime state" from this afternoon.

The troops should be "fully battle ready to launch surprise operations" while the entire frontline should be placed in a "semi-war state," KCNA quoted him as saying.

The CMC meeting came hours after the two Koreas traded artillery fire on Thursday, leaving no apparent casualties but pushing already elevated cross-border tensions to dangerously high levels.

The KPA followed up with an ultimatum sent via military hotline that gave the South 48 hours to dismantle loudspeakers blasting propaganda messages across the border or face further military action.

The ultimatum expires at 5:00pm local time (6:30pm AEST) on Saturday.

Thursday's artillery exchange in a western quarter of the border came amid heightened tensions following mine blasts that maimed two members of a South Korean border patrol earlier this month, and the launch this week of a major South Korea-US military exercise that infuriated Pyongyang.

Seoul said the mines were placed by North Korea and responded by resuming high-decibel propaganda broadcasts across the border, using loudspeakers that had lain silent for more than a decade.

South orders 'stern response', vows to continue broadcasts

The South's defence ministry dismissed the threat and said the broadcasts would continue.

The CMC backed the army's ultimatum and also ratified plans for "a retaliatory strike and counterattack on the whole length of the front", KCNA said.

There was no immediate response from South Korea, but the Unification Ministry announced it was restricting access to the North-South's joint industrial zone at Kaesong.

Only South Koreans with direct business interests in Kaesong — which lies 10 kilometres over the border inside North Korea — would be allowed to travel there, a ministry spokesman said.

The Kaesong industrial estate hosts about 120 South Korean firms employing some 53,000 North Korean workers and is a vital source of hard currency for the cash-strapped North.

Restricting access will likely be seen as a thinly veiled threat by Seoul to shut the complex down completely if the situation at the border escalates further.

South Korean troops were placed on maximum alert, while president Park Geun-Hye chaired an emergency meeting of her National Security Council and ordered a "stern response" to any further provocations.

Source: +AFP news agency