Kim Jong Un Orders North Korean Army to Be Ready for Combat

Kim declared a "semi state of war" along the border in his order to the army and convened a meeting of the highest military body of his ruling party, North Korea's official Korean Central News Agency said Friday. North Korea fired twice at South Korean border areas Thursday afternoon, prompting Seoul's forces to reply with an artillery barrage, according to the South Korean defense ministry, which said it suffered no casualties. North Korea denied it fired any projectiles. Tensions have flared in recent weeks across the so-called DMZ that bisects the Korean peninsula. Two South Korean soldiers were maimed Aug. 4 by land mines that Seoul says were recently laid by North Korea. North Korea denied any role in the blasts. Relations deteriorated further when North Korea threatened "indiscriminate attacks" over South Korean propaganda broadcasts through loudspeakers in the DMZ and the start of joint annual U.S.-South Korean military drills. A State of War "North Korea is likely to follow through on its threats to continue military retaliation if South Korea does not cease loudspeaker broadcasts by the end of this week," Victor Cha, a senior adviser for risk consultancy Teneo Intelligence in New York, said in an e-mail. "These actions correlate with the pattern of inter-Korean relations prior to the start of the military exercises, which had been trending negatively following the land mine blast." North Korea declared "a state of war" during U.S.-South Korean drills in 2013, a month after conducting its third nuclear test. In 2010 North Korea shelled a front-line South Korean island, killing two marines and two civilians. Last year, their ships exchanged warning fire near a disputed Yellow Sea boundary. North Korea threatened Thursday to begin a new "military action" unless South Korea stops the propaganda broadcasts and withdraws all loudspeakers within 48 hours. South Korea said it will continue its broadcasts. South Korea's military has raised its alert to the highest level and is ready for a "stern response" should North Korea make another provocation, the Joint Chiefs of Staff in Seoul said Thursday. A Cult of Personality President Park Geun Hye is "not taking the situation with N. Korea lightly" and has canceled all events on Friday, presidential spokeswoman Chun Hye Ran said by phone. The Korean peninsula has remained in a technical state of war for more than 60 years. While North Korea risks defeat in any conflict with South Korea, its threats have raised concerns misjudgment between the two sides could trigger a clash. North Korea operations a massive cult of personality around Kim Jong Un and his family and reacts bitterly to any outside propaganda that derogates the leader. Kim has conducted a series of purges, including the execution of his uncle Jang Song Thaek in 2013, to consolidate his grip on power since taking power three and a half years ago. More than 60 years after a civil war that ended in a stalemate, hundreds of thousands of troops are still dug in on both sides of the DMZ. More than 28,000 U.S. troops are stationed in South Korea to protect against a possible invasion from North Korea, Bloomberg reports.