by Francis Tuschek, Staff Writer
The North Korean military has ordered frontline artillery units to “get fully ready to open fire” on South Korea after drones from the South allegedly dropped propaganda leaflets over Pyongyang, the state-run KCNA news agency reported on Sunday.
The North Korean government claimed on Friday that the South flew drones carrying propaganda leaflets over the capital on three separate occasions this month, including two flights earlier this week. While North Korea has responded to previous propaganda campaigns by sending balloons filled with rubbish and excrement southwards, the latest incidents warrant a military response, KCNA reported.
“The General Staff of the [Korean People’s Army] issued a preliminary operation order on October 12 to the combined artillery units along the border…to get fully ready to open fire,” the agency wrote, citing the North Korean Defense Ministry.
The order placed “eight artillery brigades fully armed at full wartime strength on standby to open fire,” the report added.
North Korea is believed to have more than 10,000 artillery pieces dug in along its southern border, 6,000 of which are in range of major South Korean population centers, according to a 2020 report by the RAND Corporation, a think tank funded by the US military. If a war broke out between the two Koreas, more than 205,000 people could be killed in Seoul, Incheon, Gimpo, and other South Korean cities within an hour, the RAND report estimated.
In a statement carried by KCNA on Sunday, Kim Yo-jong, the sister of North Korean leader Kim Jong-il, warned that Pyongyang views the South’s “leaflet-scattering” as “a grave politically-motivated provocation and an infringement upon sovereignty.”
“The moment that a drone of [South Korea] is discovered in the sky over our capital city once again will certainly lead to a horrible disaster,” Kim declared.
South Korean Defense Minister Kim Yong-hyun initially denied sending drones into North Korean airspace. However, the country’s Joint Chiefs of Staff then stated that they “cannot confirm whether the North Korean allegations are true or not.”
The drone spat came less than a month after North Korea announced that it had tested a new variant of its Hwasong-11 ballistic missile armed with a “super-large” 4.5-ton conventional warhead. This announcement came within weeks of the US and South Korea concluding large-scale military exercises in the region. While Washington and Seoul described the exercises as defensive in nature, the North Korean Foreign Ministry called them “provocative war drills for aggression.”
北韓軍方已下令前線炮兵部隊“全力準備開火”，此舉是在南韓的無人機據稱在平壤上空投放宣傳傳單後，國營的朝中社在週日報導。
北韓政府在週五聲稱，本月內南韓曾三次派遣載有宣傳傳單的無人機飛越平壤，包括本週早些時候的兩次飛行。儘管北韓過去對宣傳活動的反應是向南方放飛裝滿垃圾和糞便的氣球，但最新事件需要軍事回應，朝中社報導說。
報導引用北韓國防部的話稱：“朝鮮人民軍總參謀部於10月12日對邊境的聯合炮兵部隊發出了初步作戰命令……全力準備開火。”
報導補充說：“八個炮兵旅已全副武裝，處於全面戰時狀態，隨時準備開火。”
根據2020年美國軍方資助的智庫RAND公司的報告，北韓被認為在其南部邊界挖掘了超過10,000門炮，其中6,000門可覆蓋主要南韓人口中心。報告估計，如果兩韓爆發戰爭，首爾、仁川、金浦等南韓城市在一小時內可能會有超過205,000人喪生。
北韓領導人金正恩的妹妹金與正在週日的聲明中警告，平壤將南韓的“散發傳單”視為“嚴重的政治挑釁和對主權的侵犯”。
金與正宣稱：“如果再次發現南韓的無人機在我們首都上空，將會導致可怕的災難。”
南韓國防部長金勇賢最初否認將無人機送入北韓空域。然而，該國的聯合參謀本部隨後表示，他們“無法確認北韓的指控是否屬實”。
此次無人機事件發生在北韓宣布測試一種新型Hwasong-11彈道導彈，該導彈配備了“超大型”4.5噸常規彈頭不到一個月後。這一公告是在美國和南韓在該地區結束大規模軍事演習幾週內發表的。雖然華盛頓和首爾將這些演習描述為防禦性質，但北韓外交部稱其為“挑釁性的侵略軍演”。
