Rival Koreas to hold high-level talks to defuse war fears

South Korean army soldiers check the identification of a motorist at the checkpoint on Unification Bridge, which leads to the demilitarized zone, near the border village of Panmunjom in Paju, South Korea, Saturday, Aug. 22, 2015. North Korean leader Kim Jong Un on Friday declared his front-line troops in a “quasi-state of war” and ordered them to prepare for battle a day after the most serious confrontation between the rivals in years. The banner at right reads: “No entry, vehicles disapproved.” AP

PYONGYANG, North Korea — South Korea and North Korea on Saturday agreed to hold their first high-level talks in nearly a year at the border village of Panmunjom to defuse mounting tensions that have pushed the rivals on the brink of a possible military confrontation.

The meeting, scheduled for 6 p.m. Seoul time (0900 GMT), would come 30 minutes after the deadline set by North Korea for South Korea to dismantle loudspeakers broadcasting anti-North Korean propaganda at their border. North Korea has declared its frontline troops are in full war readiness and prepared to go to battle if Seoul doesn’t back down.

The South Korean presidential office said national security adviser Kim Kwan-jin and Unification Minister Hong Yong-pyo will sit down with Hwang Pyong So, the top political officer for the Korean People’s Army and considered by outside analysts to be North Korea’s second most important official after supreme leader Kim Jong Un, and Kim Yang Gon, a secretary of the central committee of the Workers’ Party of Korea.

The meeting comes as a series of incident, starting with the North’s alleged land mine attack that maimed two South Korean soldiers and the South’s resumption of anti-Pyongyang propaganda broadcasts, raised fears that the conflict could spiral out of control.

In Pyongyang, businesses were open as usual and street stalls selling ice cream were crowded as residents took breaks under parasols from the summer sun. There were no visible signs of increased security measures, though the city is even under normal situations heavily secured and fortified. More than 240 South Koreans entered a jointly-run industrial complex in the North Korean border city of Kaesong.

The North’s state-run media has strongly ratcheted up its rhetoric, saying the whole nation is bracing for the possibility of an all-out war. Leader Kim Jong Un has been shown repeatedly on TV news broadcasts leading a strategy meeting with the top military brass to review the North’s attack plan and young people are reportedly swarming to recruitment centers to sign up to join the fight.

“We have exercised our self-restraint for decades,” the North’s Foreign Ministry said in a statement Friday. “Now, no one’s talk about self-restraint is helpful to putting the situation under control. The army and people of the DPRK are poised not just to counteract or make any retaliation but not to rule out all-out war to protect the social system, their own choice, at the risk of their lives.”

People were willing to talk about the tension and, as is common in public in North Korea — officially called the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea — they voiced support for their government’s policies and their leader. They also used phrases like “puppet gangsters” to refer to South Korean authorities, as these are everyday terms in the North, in state media and conversation.

“I think that the South Korean puppet gangsters should have the clear idea that thousands of our people and soldiers are totally confident in winning at any cost because we have our respected leader with us,” said Pyongyang citizen Choe Sin Ae.

It was not clear if North Korea meant to attack immediately, if at all, but South Korea has vowed to continue the broadcasts, which it recently restarted after an 11 year stoppage after accusing Pyongyang of planting land mines that maimed two South Korean soldiers earlier this month.

Four US F-16 fighter jets and four F-15k South Korean fighter jets simulated bombings, starting on South Korea’s eastern coast and moving toward the US base at Osan, near Seoul, officials said.

South Korea’s military on Thursday fired dozens of artillery rounds across the border in response to what Seoul said were North Korean artillery strikes meant to back up a threat to attack the loudspeakers.

US-based experts on North Korea said the land mine blast and this week’s shelling were the most serious security incidents at the border since Kim Jong Un came to power after the 2011 death of his father, Kim Jong Il. The country was founded by Kim Jong Un’s grandfather, Kim Il Sung.

“If Kim Jong Il or Kim Il Sung was in charge, I would say that leadership in North Korea would recognize that South Korea has responded in kind to an attack and it’s time to stand down. But I’m not sure Kim Jong Un understands the rules of the game established by his father and grandfather on how to ratchet up tensions and then ratchet them down. I’m not sure if he knows how to de-escalate,” said Evans Revere, a former senior State Department official on East Asia.

The North denies responsibility for the land mine attack and says it didn’t fire across the border, a claim Seoul says is nonsense.

The standoff comes during annual military exercises between the US and South Korea North Korea calls the drills a preparation for invasion, although the US and South Korea insist they are defensive in nature.

Hundreds of residents in South Korean border towns had evacuated to shelters during the conflict on Thursday before returning home on Friday afternoon. Fishermen on Saturday were banned for the second straight day from entering waters near five South Korean islands near the disputed western sea border with North Korea, according to marine police officials in Incheon.

In a propaganda statement carried by North Korea’s official Korean Central News Agency, Pyongyang’s Foreign Ministry said that North Korean soldiers and people are “poised not to just counter-act or make any retaliation but not to rule out an all-out war to protect the social system, their own choice, at the risk of their lives.”

The North’s threats are similar to its other warlike rhetoric in recent years. Still, the North’s apparent willingness to test Seoul with military strikes and its recent warning of further action raise worries because South Korea has vowed to hit back with overwhelming strength should North Korea attack again.

South Korea’s Yonhap news agency, citing an unidentified government source, reported Friday that South Korean and US surveillance assets detected the movement of vehicles carrying short-range Scud and medium-range Rodong missiles in a possible preparation for launches. South Korea’s Defense Ministry said it could not confirm the report.

North Korea said the South Korean shells fired Thursday landed near four military posts but caused no injuries. No one was reported injured in the South, either, though hundreds were evacuated from front-line towns. Pyongyang says it did not fire anything at the South, a claim Seoul dismissed as nonsense.

Authoritarian North Korea, which has also restarted its own propaganda broadcasts, is extremely sensitive to any criticism of its government, run by leader Kim Jong Un, whose family has ruled since the North was founded in 1948. The loudspeaker broadcasts are taken seriously in Pyongyang because the government does not want its soldiers and residents to hear outsiders criticize human rights abuses and economic mismanagement that condemns many to abject poverty, South Korean analysts say.

South Korea’s military warned Friday that North Korea must refrain from engaging in “rash acts” or face strong punishment, according to South Korea’s Defense Ministry. South Korea raised its military readiness to its highest level.

Escalation is a risk in any military exchange between the Koreas because after two attacks blamed on Pyongyang killed 50 South Koreans in 2010, South Korea’s military warned that any future North Korean attack could trigger strikes by South Korea that are three times as large.

The Koreas’ mine-strewn Demilitarized Zone is a legacy of the 1950-53 Korean War, which ended with an armistice, not a peace treaty, leaving the Korean Peninsula still technically in a state of war. About 28,500 US soldiers are deployed in South Korea to deter potential aggression from North Korea.