North Korea said Saturday that inter-Korean relations have entered into a state of war and all cross-border issues will be dealt with in a wartime manner, the latest in a near-daily series of strident threats against the South in recent weeks.
“Situations on the Korean Peninsula, which are neither in peace nor at war, have come to an end,” the North said in a special statement issued by the country’s party, ministries and other institutions, according to the Korean Central News Agency.
Pyongyang has sharply ratcheted up belligerent rhetoric in recent weeks with repeated war threats against the South in anger over joint military exercises between South Korea and the United States as well as a new U.N. Security Council resolution adopted for its third nuclear test.