Kim Jong-un puts troops on 'war footing' after two Koreas exchange artillery fire

North Korean leader tells soldiers to be ‘fully battle-ready to launch surprise operations’ as already elevated cross-border tensions reach dangerous heights

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North Korea’s leader Kim Jong-un has put his troops on a war footing and threatened “indiscriminate strikes” on the South, prompting “deep concern”
in Washington over the latest rise in tensions on the Korean peninsula.
Kim said on Thursday evening his troops were in a “quasi-state of war” and warned of further military action unless South Korea stopped broadcasting cross-border propaganda and ended its “psychological warfare” against the North within 48 hours.
The deadline for the ultimatum is understood to expire at 5pm on Saturday.
The warning comes after the two countries exchanged artillery fire across their heavily armed border on Thursday.

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The two Koreas have been divided by the heavily armed demilitarised zone since the end of the 1950-53 Korean war. That conflict ended with an armistice, but not a peace treaty, meaning the countries are still technically at war.
North Korea’s official Korean Central News Agency said on Friday that Kim, the third-generation dictator of North Korea’s founding dynasty, told an emergency meeting of the ruling party’s central military commission on Thursday night that troops would “enter a wartime state” and be prepared to carry out “indiscriminate strikes” against the South.
South Korea’s Yonhap news agency quoted the North Korean state broadcaster as saying: “Commanders of the Korean People’s Army were hastily dispatched to the frontline troops to command military operations to destroy psychological warfare tools if the enemy does not stop propaganda broadcasts within 48 hours and prepare [for] the enemy’s possible counteractions.”
North Korea has issued similar threats, usually to coincide with South Korea’s joint annual military drills with the US. Seoul and Washington say the exercises are strictly defensive, but North Korea regards them as a rehearsal for an invasion.
Thursday’s exchange of artillery fire was prompted by Pyongyang’s threat to destroy loudspeakers positioned along the southern side of the border that started broadcasting high-decibel anti-North Korean propaganda earlier this month for the first time since 2004.

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A South Korean loudspeaker. Photograph: South Korea defence ministry/EPA

Seoul said the broadcasts recommenced in retaliation for a landmine explosion that seriously injured two South Korean soldiers while they were out on patrol.
South Korean troops have been placed on maximum alert, while the president, Park Geun-hye, chaired an emergency meeting of her National Security Council and ordered a “stern response” to any further provocations.
North Korea first fired a single round believed to be from an anti-aircraft gun, which landed in a South Korean border town on Thursday afternoon, Seoul said.
About 20 minutes later, several more artillery shells fell on the southern side of the DMZ.
South Korea responded with dozens of 155mm artillery