(PYONGYANG, North Korea) — North
Korea's military warned Monday that troops have aimed artillery at the specific
coordinates of South Korean media groups as Pyongyang threatened a "merciless
sacred war" over perceived insults.
The North Korean statement, which
expresses outrage over South Korean media criticism of ongoing children's
festivals in Pyongyang, is the latest in a series of threats aimed at Seoul's
conservative government and news agencies following the December death of Kim
Jong Il, the father of new leader Kim Jong Un. North Korea hasn't yet acted on
its threats of violence.
Still, Monday's comments from the
General Staff of the Korean People's Army contained an unusually specific
mention of the longitude and latitude of the locations of seven media outlets.
North Korea said it had targeted those agencies and would attack if Seoul
doesn't apologize for orchestrating a "vicious smear campaign" against the
festivals in the North's capital.
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In Seoul, the Unification Ministry,
which handles relations with the North, called the statement a "grave
provocation."
"It's too serious to put aside,"
ministry spokesman Kim Hyung-suk told reporters.
Ties between the divided Koreas are
at a low point following a failed North Korean rocket launch in April that
Washington, Seoul and others have called a cover for a test of long-range
missile technology. North Korea says the rocket, which broke apart shortly after
liftoff, was meant to launch an observational satellite.
Among the South Korean media groups
North Korea threatened was Channel A, a television network affiliated with the
conservative Dong-a Ilbo newspaper, which has described the children's festivals
in Pyongyang as an Adolf Hitler-style "political show."
Channel A and other South Korean
media have reported this year's celebrations will be the North's largest ever,
saying Kim Jong Un is trying to obtain allegiance from children who will join
the army in a few years under a mandatory conscription system.
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"Officers and men of the army
corps, divisions and regiments on the front, and strategic rocket forces in the
depth of the country, are loudly calling for the issue of order to mete out
punishment," according to the North's statement, carried by the official Korean
Central News Agency.
Calls to Channel A's public affairs
office weren't immediately answered and no relevant statement was posted on the
network's website.
About 20,000 children across North
Korea are celebrating the 66th anniversary of the Korean Children's Union,
according to KCNA. During the six-day festival that began Sunday, children
planned to tour Pyongyang, participate in political and cultural events and
visit a zoo and restaurants, the agency said.
The two Koreas are still
technically at war because their 1950-53 war ended with an armistice, not a
peace treaty.