South and North Korea hold talks

Talks began on Saturday evening local time between officials of the two hostile countries in a bid to reduce the prospect of all-out war.

Tensions have risen after Pyongyang gave Seoul a deadline to dismantle loudspeakers broadcasting anti-North Korean propaganda across the border.

The North has said its front-line troops were in full war readiness if Seoul did not back down.

The South said its national security adviser Kim Kwan-jin and unification minister Hong Yong-pyo would participate in the talks with the top political officer for the North Korean People's Army (KPA) at the Panmunjom truce village.

Meanwhile, the US said it was committed to defending South Korea, one of its key allies in East Asia. A Pentagon statement said that General Martin Dempsey made a phone call to a senior South Korean official on Friday "and reiterated the strength of the US-ROK [South Korea] alliance."

On brink of war

Earlier on Saturday North Korean officials said the situation on the inter-Korean border was "hardly controllable." The North Korean People's Army (KPA) said Saturday its front-line troops were now in a "fully armed wartime state."

South Korea refused to give in to an ultimatum from Pyongyang that Seoul stop its anti-North propaganda broadcasts by Saturday afternoon (08:30 UTC) or face a military attack.

"Our military and people are prepared to risk their lives in an all-out war to defend the system our people chose," South Korea's foreign ministry said.

Han Minkoo, South Korea's defense minister, defended the broadcasts, which only recently started up again after a break of 11 years, saying it was a valid response to a landmine in the border area that killed two South Korean soldiers. He warned that should North Korean leader Kim Jong Un pursue provocation, his nation would face "searing" consequences.

The tension, which was already near a boiling point over the broadcasts and the soldiers' deaths, reached fever pitch on Thursday when North Korea fired four shells over the border. Overnight, a senior military official from Pyongyang said Kim had "reviewed and approved the final attack operation."

"The situation has reached the brink of war," the North Korean foreign ministry said in a statement early Saturday.

While the North declined to elaborate on what form the "attack" would take, the deputy defense minister in Seoul, Baek Seung-joo, said it was likely that they would fire at some of the 11 sites along the southern side of the Demilitarized Zone (DMZ) between the two countries where they have set up loudspeakers for their broadcasts.

Decades-long conflict

Neighboring China is "deeply concerned" about the situation, the foreign ministry said on Friday, calling for restraint as the sides traded artillery fire. Since the Korean War ended in a truce in 1953 - but not a formal peace treaty - threats and small amounts of violence have been a common occurrence.

The renewed hostility stems from a 2010 sinking of a South Korean navy vessel, which Seoul says was the work of the communist country. After this incident, South Korean President Park Geun-hye's attempts at improving ties have come to an almost complete standstill.

shs/ng (AFP, dpa, Reuters)