North Korea has agreed to scrap its plans of military action against its neighbor South Korea, the official KCNA news agency disclosed on Wednesday, as a report indicated that North Korean soldiers had taken down loudspeakers that were put up recently at the heavily-fortified boundary.
North Korean dictator Kim Jong Un chaired a video conference meeting of the Central Military Commission of the ruling bloc early Tuesday, where representatives analyzed the situation seriously prior to giving the go signal to postpone their military plans, the report said. The panel also tackled papers outlining steps to further strengthen the North's war deterrence, KCNA reported.
North Korea has released a series of condemnations of South Korea over anti-North propaganda leaflets in the past weeks, which South-based defectors send across the border - usually attached in floated in bottles or balloons.
The North last week blew up a communications building on its side of the border symbolizing inter-Korean correspondence, while its military stated it would launch multiple actions against Seoul. Kim Yo Jong, Kim's sister, warned last week of retaliatory actions against the South that could involve the military, without going into details.
The planned actions included re-entering parts of the North from which it had backed out from as part of inter-Korean projects, restoring sentry posts in the Demilitarized Zone, and ramping up exercises.
Last week, the General Staff announced it would deploy military personnel to the Mount Geumgang tourist area and the Gaeseong Industrial site. It also disclosed that it will restore guard posts that have been removed from the DMZ, and resume all kinds of regular military activities near the inter-Korean border.
Pyongyang recently reinstalled a propaganda speaker system along the inter-Korean peninsula, while claiming that the government is ready to send around 12 million anti-Seoul propaganda leaflets through 3,000 inflatable materials and other means in a tit-for-tat response versus leaflets dispersed from the South.
Meanwhile, Jenny Town, of the US-headquartered North Korea-monitoring website 38 North, revealed that anti-South Korea rhetoric from Pyongyang over the few days had left room for flexibility, although it was not clear where the latest moves will lead.
The KCNA report sent shares of South Korea's defense-related companies, which have rallied during the deepening frictions, into a free fall early Wednesday.
Speco, Victek Co Ltd, and Firstec have fallen over 20 percent each, while the benchmark KOSPI and junior KOSDAQ made some decent gains with 1.3 percent and 0.9 percent, respectively.
