The Dora Observatory looking across the Demilitarized Zone was shut down by security forces. More than 240 South Koreans entered a jointly-run industrial complex in the North Korean border city of Kaesong.
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Shear said the U.S. commander in Seoul made a decision to pause the drill after consulting with officials of South Korean military. Pyongyang accused the South of inventing a pretext to fire into the North.
South Korea’s army on Thursday fired dozens of artillery rounds throughout the border in response to what Seoul stated have been North Korean artillery strikes meant to again up a menace to assault loudspeakers broadcasting anti-Pyongyang propaganda. The South responded by firing back shells of their own.
South Korea’s Yonhap news agency, citing a government source, reported yesterday that South Korean and US surveillance assets had detected the movement of vehicles carrying short-range Scud and medium-range Rodong missiles in a possible preparation for launches.
Seoul began blasting anti-North propaganda from loudspeakers on the border on August 10, days after landmines wounded two South Korean soldiers along the DMZ, resuming a tactic both sides had stopped in 2004. Seoul has vowed to continue the broadcasts.
The risk of things getting out of hand seems greater now because South Korea, in the wake of a humiliating exchange in 2010, when a surprise North Korean artillery attack killed four, has instructed its military to hit back much harder if attacked. An Myong Hun, the ambassador for North Korea to the United Nations, states that North Korea is prepared for “strong military counter-action”. The vice defense minister in South Korea believes this means an attack will take place against the broadcasting towers in the south.
The protesters on Friday burned posters with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un’s photos and a North Korean flag.
Shear said the exercise was suspended briefly in order to allow the U.S.to “coordinate” with South Korea on the exchange of artillery fire across the DMZ. “They are remaining in an enhanced status as part of the exercise to ensure adequate deterrence on the peninsula”, Shear said.
Washington expressed its concern about the situation.
He “urges the parties to refrain from taking any further measures that might increase tensions”, said his spokeswoman Eri Kaneko.
Ban is a former South Korean foreign minister. On Ganghwa Island, residents in villages near a site where South Korea operates one of its loudspeakers were also evacuated, according to island officials. It threatened action unless Seoul ends its anti-Pyongyang border broadcasts.
The new sense of worry also comes from uncertainty about the young, third generation leader now at the helm in the North, Kim Jong Un. (The mines detonated, maiming two South Korean soldiers).
Even so, and granting the important caveat that predicting North Korea’s behavior in advance is largely a fool’s errand, there are still some important signs that tensions may ease.
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U.S. defense officials say America’s annual military exercise with South Korea has been halted as tensions with North Korea spike and Pyongyang issues threats of war.
