N. Korea warns of war

Associated Press

SEOUL, South Korea

North Korea warned of war as South Korea today continued blasting anti- Pyongyang propaganda across the rivals’ tense border in retaliation for the North’s purported fourth nuclear test.

North Korean propaganda is filled with threats of violence, but the country also is extremely sensitive to criticism of its authoritarian leadership, which Seoul resumed in its cross-border broadcasts Friday for the first time in nearly five months. Pyongyang says the broadcasts are tantamount to an act of war. When South Korea briefly resumed propaganda broadcasts in August after an 11-year break, Seoul says the two Koreas exchanged artillery fire.

Speaking to a massive crowd at Pyongyang’s Kim Il Sung Square, a top ruling party official said the broadcasts, along with talks between Washington and Seoul on the possibility of deploying in the South advanced U.S. warplanes capable of delivering nuclear bombs, have pushed the Korean Peninsula “toward the brink of war.”

South Korean troops, near about 10 sites where loudspeakers started blaring propaganda Friday, were on the highest alert, but have yet to detect any unusual movement from the North Korean military along the border, an official from Seoul’s Defense Ministry, who refused to be named, citing office rules, said today.