North Korea announced Sunday that military units were prepared to launch attacks on South Korea after its neighbor to the south flew drones over Pyongyang and dropped leaflets.
The Associated Press reported that South Korea refused to confirm whether it had sent drones to North Korea, but warned that it would punish North Korea if the South Korean population was at risk.
According to North Korea, South Korea flew drones into its country three times and dropped propaganda leaflets over the capital Pyongyang. North Korean officials have warned that if such a situation occurs again, they will respond with force.
State media reported on Sunday that the North's Defense Ministry said its military had issued a preliminary order for artillery operations and other units near the South Korean border to be prepared to “open fire.”
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North Korean Supreme Leader Kim Jong Un grimaces during a news conference, June 19, 2024, in Pyongyang, North Korea. (Contributor/Getty Images)
A ministry spokesman, who remained unidentified, said North Korea's military has ordered units to fully prepare for situations in which immediate strikes against unspecified enemy targets may be necessary if South Korea sends drones across the border again, according to the statement.
The spokesman also said that “there is serious and difficult military tension on the Korean Peninsula” over drone flights from the south.
In another statement Sunday, a spokesman said South Korea “could turn into a pile of ashes” after a massive attack by North Korea.
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In this photo provided by the North Korean government, North Korean leader Kim Jong Un (center) oversees artillery exercises in North Korea on March 7, 2024. (Korea Central News Agency/Korea News Service via AP, File)
North Korea is no stranger to using such fiery and harsh rhetoric when tensions between it and North Korea South Korea and the US become heightened.
Relations between North Korea and South Korea have been tense since the 2019 collapse of U.S.-led diplomacy to end North Korea's nuclear program.
Since then, North Korea has insisted on expanding its nuclear arsenal and has repeatedly threatened to attack South Korea and the United States with nuclear weapons.
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Balloons seen from the Unification Observatory in Paju, South Korea, near the border with North Korea, Thursday, September 5, 2024. (AP Photo/Lee Jin-man)
But experts say North Korea is unlikely to launch a full-scale attack because U.S. and South Korean forces outnumber the North's military.
Last week, North Korea said it would permanently block its border with South Korea and build front-line defense structures to deal with the “confrontational hysteria” of South Korean and American forces.
Last month, North Korea launched more than 160 balloons carrying garbage across its southern border.
Inside the balloons were paper, plastic bottles and other household garbage that was found in parts of Gyeonggi Province surrounding the capital Seoul.
In early September, South Korea's Joint Chiefs of Staff (JCS) said they had detected about 420 balloons that the North allegedly released into South Korea.
The garbage parcel is the latest exchange between the two Koreas, which have been using Cold War-style tactics since the beginning of this year, with North Korea releasing thousands of balloons toward the south filled with waste paper, fabric scraps, cigarette butts and even manure.
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North Korea says the balloons are retaliation against South Korean civilian activists who pass anti-Korean propaganda leaflets across the border.
Garbage carried by at least one North Korean balloon fell onto the grounds of the South Korean presidential compound in July, raising concerns about the vulnerability of key facilities in South Korea. Authorities said there were no hazardous materials in the balloon and no one was injured.
South Korea retaliated by using front-line loudspeakers to blast propaganda messages and K-pop songs to the North.
Fox News Digital's Bradford Betz and Associated Press contributed to this report.
