Kim Jong-un outlines lines for “immediate military action”

North Korean leader Kim Jong-un has outlined the lines of a “immediate military action” during a high-level national security meeting amid heightened tensions with South Korea, state media reported Tuesday. Kim Jong-un “defined the direction of immediate military action and indicated the important tasks to be accomplished within the framework of war deterrence and the exercise of the right to self-defense”reported the official North Korean news agency KCNA.

The country’s top security officials, including the army chief, and the ministers of national security and defense, attended the meeting on Monday. This comes against a backdrop of strong tensions with South Korea. North Korea, which accused Seoul of sending drones carrying propaganda leaflets to Pyongyang, sent reinforcement troops to the border and warned that one more drone would be considered “a declaration of war”. “Our army is closely monitoring the situation and is fully prepared to respond to provocations from the North”reacted Monday Lee Seong-joon, a spokesperson for the South Korean Joint Chiefs of Staff, reproaching the North for its accusations “shameless”.

“Incendiary rumors and nonsense”

The North Korean regime has complained of several drone flights since October, which have dropped propaganda leaflets full of “inflammatory rumors and nonsense”and accuses Seoul of being responsible. A report on the “serious provocations from the enemy” was presented during the meeting, and Kim “expressed a firm political and military position”KCNA reported. South Korean Defense Minister Kim Yong-hyun initially denied that Seoul was behind the drone flights. The Joint Chiefs of Staff subsequently declared that they did not “confirm whether the North Korean allegations (were) true or not”.

Militant groups in the South routinely send propaganda and U.S. currency to the North, usually by balloon. While the two Koreas remain technically at war, the deadly 1950-53 conflict resulting in an armistice and not a peace treaty, the United Nations Korea Command, which oversees the armistice, said it was aware of the accusations North Koreans.