North Korea Issues Fresh Threats, Willing To Attack South Korea "Without Any Notice"
Monday marked the 101st birthday of North Korea's Kim Il Sung, a national holiday of the highest order for North Koreans. That doesn't mean that leadership in Pyongyang would relax for long however, and on Tuesday they lobbed new threats to their to the south.
"If the puppet authorities truly want dialogue and negotiations, they should apologize for all anti-DPRK hostile acts, big and small, and show the compatriots their will to stop all these acts in practice," a statement from the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK) said. The DPRK is the official name for North Korea.
North Korea has made it clear that they demand respect and perhaps an act of subservience from South Korea if there is to be peace on the peninsula. If it does not come soon, they have already stated that "our retaliatory action will start without any notice from now."
Despite the hostile rhetoric coming from their neighbors to the North, South Koreans do not appear to be particularly worried about what appears to be an impending war. They have good reason to be confident, as their military power dwarfs that of Kim Jong-un's leadership. Many South Koreans appear to view such antics as nothing more than the feisty posturing of a little brother.
"The ultimatum is just North Korea's way of saying that it's not willing or ready to talk with the South," said Chang Yong-seok at the Institute for Peace and Unification Studies at Seoul National University. "North Korea apparently wants to keep the cross-border relations tense for some time to come."
Though South Korea could likely handle a wartime situation with North Korea on their own, they also have the backing of the U.S. and it's military and anti-defense systems. China, a long-time North Korean ally, has also joined the U.S. in demanding denuclearization and an end to bellicose rhetoric in North Korea.
"The United States has made clear many times what the conditions are for our entering talks, and they haven't changed," U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry said. "The conditions have to be met where the North has to move towards denuclearization, indicate a seriousness in doing so by reducing these threats, stop the testing and indicate it's actually prepared to negotiate."