Must have turned off the loudspeakers:
"The two Koreas exchanged rocket and artillery fire in the first major armed clash across their border in five years. No casualties were immediately reported from the exchange of fire that took place across one of the world’s most heavily armed borders on Thursday. But...."
The New York Times narrative is the North launched an attack and the South responded.
What did AP say?
Related: Patrolling the Pacific: Korean Clashes
That's the current situation, and it's all about confronting China, don'cha know?
"North Korea warns of war with South after artillery fire" Associated Press August 22, 2015
PYONGYANG, North Korea — 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.
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 loudspeakers broadcasting anti-Pyongyang propaganda.
The spike in tensions prompted the United States and South Korea to briefly halt an annual military exercise that began this week, US defense officials said Friday.
North Korea had criticized the drills, calling them a preparation for invasion, although the United States and South Korea insist they are defensive in nature.
The North’s declaration Friday is similar to its other warlike rhetoric in recent years, including repeated threats to reduce Seoul to a ‘‘sea of fire.’’
Look at the pot hollering kettle.
--more--"
"N. Korea reportedly moves weapons to border amid talks; Rivals in third day of negotiations; impasse remains" by Choe Sang-Hun New York Times August 24, 2015
SEOUL — A South Korean Defense Ministry spokesman, speaking on the customary condition of anonymity, said, “This is a typical North Korean tactic of talking on one hand and brandishing military power on the other to try to force their way.”
I know some other nations that do that, too.
It is highly unusual for so many of the North’s 70 known submarines to be away from their bases at once, officials here said. South Korea has been particularly sensitive about North Korean submarines after 46 sailors were killed in 2010 in the sinking of a South Korean navy ship, which the South attributed to a torpedo fired by a North Korean submarine.
Turned out the torpedo was from an Israeli Dolphin sub sold to them by Germany. Go do some research.
On Monday, President Park Geun-hye of South Korea said that there was “no backing down” in the border talks and that the South would continue its loudspeaker broadcasts unless the North apologized for its recent provocations.
“In order to stop the repeating cycle of provocations and anxiety, we need a clear apology and commitment from the North that these things will not happen again,” Park told a meeting with presidential aides, according to her office.
The militaries of both Koreas have been on heightened alert since they exchanged artillery fire Thursday in a dispute about the loudspeakers.
Since taking office in 2011, Kim has striven to prove himself a worthy “military first” successor of his father and grandfather, both of whom ruled North Korea, by conducting nuclear and long-range missile tests. But his inexperience in managing crises has added to worries about the current standoff. Some analysts fear that his frequent executions of top officials might make top generals more prone to attempt armed provocations to prove their loyalty.
Who wrote this speculative horse sh**????
Before the talks began, the two sides sounded as if they were about to escalate the clashes....
And the New York Times is sooooo hoping that's true!
--more--"
Sorry to disappoint:
"Koreas agree on steps to defuse tensions; South to silence speakers; North set for more talks" by Choe Sang-Hun New York Times August 25, 2015
SEOUL — In a deal to defuse tensions that were escalating toward armed conflict, South Korea agreed Tuesday to switch off its propaganda loudspeakers on the border, while North Korea agreed to stand down from its “semiwar state,” a high level of military alert.
Maybe I won't get a Globe tomorrow. That propaganda loudspeaker needs to be turned off.
North Korea also expressed “regrets” for the maiming of two soldiers from the South in land-mine explosions, Kim Kwan-jin, the chief national security adviser to President Park Geun-hye of South Korea, said during a news conference.
Kim also said that the two Koreas agreed to hold reunions of aging Koreans who became separated from relatives during the 1950-53 Korean War. Such reunions, last held in February 2014, are seen as a barometer of thawing relations.
WOW! The Koreans have MOVED EVEN CLOSER after all this!
“South and North Korea agreed to hold a government meeting in Seoul or Pyongyang at an early date so that they can have dialogue and negotiations on various issues to improve relations,” Kim said, reading a joint statement that the two countries signed at the border village of Panmunjom.
I'm HAPPY, hey! I LIKE PEACE!!!!
The North Korean government also announced the agreement Tuesday.
The agreement emerged from marathon talks between Kim and Vice Marshal Hwang Pyong So, the second-most powerful military officer in the North after the country’s leader, Kim Jong Un. The two sides haggled for three days at Panmunjom while the rival military forces stood ready for a possible armed clash if the talks broke down.
OMG, this was a ginned up effort by the AmeriKan pre$$ (and the New York Times) in their hopes to get a war going.
How disgusting!!!
North-South relations, already testy, deteriorated sharply after two South Korean border guards were seriously wounded Aug. 4 by land mines that the South said were planted by the North.
In retaliation, South Korea resumed blaring propaganda into the North from batteries of loudspeakers along the border, reviving a tactic it had suspended 11 years ago.
Yeah, I probably will buy a Globe on Thursday.
The North, which had warned that it would consider use of the loudspeakers an “act of war,” said that if the South did not shut the speakers off by 5 p.m. Saturday, it would take “strong military action,” including attacking the loudspeakers. An exchange of artillery fire Thursday raised tensions further.
The two sides agreed to open talks to defuse the situation a few hours before the deadline Saturday.
The land-mine episode loomed large in the dispute. Park insisted Monday that the South would not turn loudspeakers off unless the North apologized, while the North denied any responsibility.
Analysts said the North fears that the loudspeakers’ propaganda could demoralize its front-line troops and inspire them to defect.
It sure has the citizenry of this nation from which I'm typing.
As the Panmunjom talks stalled, North Korea deployed more artillery pieces, submarines, and other forces along the border in an apparent move to increase its leverage.
Something any U.S. ally would do.
The negotiators apparently broke their impasse with a compromise in which North Korea expressed its “regrets” for the mine explosions without explicitly acknowledging responsibility for them.
The type of arrangement usually reserved for banks.
In return for allowing that compromise, South Korea won a North Korean agreement to hold a new round of reunions of separated families in time for Chuseok, the annual harvest holiday, which begins Sept. 27. The holiday is traditionally a time for family gatherings in Korea, akin to US Thanksgiving.
Park has repeatedly called for more reunions of relatives who lost contact during the Korean War six decades ago and have not seen one another since.
Over the decades, the two governments have arranged a series of reunions, but the program has proceeded only fitfully, subject to the political mood on the divided peninsula. About 70,000 South Koreans, most of them 80 or older, remain on a government waiting list, hoping for a chance before they die to meet children or siblings they left in the North.
Makes me want to sing in happiness!
--more--"
The feeling I'm left with is that someone was trying to get a war going, a war neither the North or South wants.
Now I can finally get some sleep.
NDU:
"Each of them had domestic political reasons to want to show toughness and resolve, analysts said, so the latest confrontation swiftly escalated to the brink of armed conflict. Then, each leader had reasons to want to appear statesmanlike and in command of events, so an agreement was struck."
Yeah, we see that a lot over here in AmeriKa, and I cut it off right there because I'm happy and nothing can spoil the mood, not even the rest of the NYT turd!
UPDATE:
China has just emptied its jails and mobilized troops:
"China’s legislature Saturday approved a prisoner amnesty as part of commemorations of World War II’s end that could see thousands of inmates, such as war veterans or juveniles, released. The official Xinhua News Agency said the measure approved could free several thousand prisoners by the end of this year. Those eligible include veterans of World War II, the Chinese civil war that ended with the Communist victory in 1949, and subsequent conflicts such as the 1950-1953 Korean War."
Also see: Boat capsizes off S. Korea, killing 10
It wasn't the North Koreans.
