Pyongyang warns conflict on the Korean peninsula is only a matter of time

KCNA quoted a North Korean military official as blaming South Korea for the cancellation of the inter-Korean military agreement - signed on September 19, 2018.

Pyongyang stressed that “the military demarcation buffer zone with South Korea that it maintained for five years has completely disappeared” and “armed conflict on the Korean peninsula is only a matter of time.”

At the same time, North Korea warned that South Korea's "hostile actions" would lead to "total destruction" of the entire Korean peninsula.

North Korea's Hwasong-18 ballistic missile. (Photo: KCNA)

Pyongyang's move was in response to South Korea's partial suspension of a 2018 agreement and its announcement of increased surveillance along the border with North Korea following the North's launch of a military spy satellite.

North Korea's satellite launch is "a legitimate and proper right of a sovereign state" and it is meaningless for South Korea to suspend the agreement in response to a satellite launch not banned under the agreement, KCNA said.

KCNA said that if North Korea's satellite launch violated the 2018 agreement, then South Korea's launch of a spy satellite would be of the same nature.

In addition, Pyongyang also accused South Korea of sending drones to drop leaflets over North Korean territory, calling it an "act of war."

According to KCNA , South Korea has continuously provoked North Korea with a series of actions such as placing loudspeakers in border areas, violating North Korea's territorial waters and airspace with warships and reconnaissance aircraft, as well as violating the inter-Korean military agreement.

“Armed conflict and war on the Korean peninsula are now only a matter of time. From now on, we will be able to carry out normal military operations as we wish without being bound by any regulations,” KCNA said.

Meanwhile, Seoul said that its launch of a military spy satellite was a "legal" action, in accordance with international law and did not threaten regional and international peace .

Kong Anh (Source: Yonhap)

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