The DPRK Armed Forces were ordered to prepare to open fire

SEOUL – The armed forces of the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea have been ordered to prepare to open fire, state media said Sunday, as tensions rise on the Korean Peninsula after the DPRK threatened the Republic of Korea over the recent drone attack on the Korean Republic Peninsula accused of having airspace.

“The General Staff of the Korean People’s Army (KPA) issued a preliminary operational order on October 12 to the combined artillery units along the (southern) border and units carrying out important firepower tasks to fully prepare to open fire,” the said The official Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) quoted a Sunday statement from the DPRK Defense Ministry as saying.

“Severe military tensions are prevailing on the Korean Peninsula due to the Republic of Korea’s wanton violation of the sovereignty of the DPRK through the intrusion of drones into the capital Pyongyang,” said the statement, which referred to South Korea by the acronym of its official name, Republic Korea.

The statement stressed the need to fully prepare its military units to deal with any developments in the evolving situation. The basis for this was the assessment of the KPA General Staff that future drone infiltration by the Republic of Korea would lead to immediate attacks by the DPRK on certain enemy targets, the possibility of a subsequent widespread armed conflict cannot be ruled out.

The air defense posts in Pyongyang have been strengthened, it said.

In a separate statement on Sunday, the ministry said it had “already concluded that the South Korean military was behind a series of drone infiltrations.”

The ministry warned that the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea “will take action at our discretion and consider any re-sighted drones to be from the Republic of Korea and consider this a declaration of war.”

Kim Yo Jong, deputy department head of the Central Committee of the Workers’ Party of Korea, warned in a statement on Sunday that the South Korean military should “refrain from rash action” and instead “immediately choose to prevent such a provocation from occurring again.” ensure”. as a violation of another country’s airspace.

On Friday, the DPRK Foreign Ministry accused the Republic of Korea of ​​sending drones over Pyongyang, KCNA reported.

Later in the day, South Korea’s military denied the accusation and said it had “not sent any drones to North Korea.”

Yonhap News Agency quoted the Republic of Korea’s chiefs of staff as saying that the Republic of Korea military had not sent an unmanned drone over the DPRK, but that the possibility of such an action had yet to be investigated by Republic of Korea civilian stakeholders.