North Korea said Saturday it had formally entered into a “state of

North Korea said Saturday it had formally entered into a “state of war” with South Korea — an announcement largely dismissed by Seoul as an old threat dressed in slightly different clothing.

It was the latest in a string of dire-sounding pronouncements from Pyongyang that have been matched by tough warnings from Seoul and Washington, fueling international concern that the situation might spiral out of control.

“As of now, inter-Korea relations enter a state of war and all matters between the two Koreas will be handled according to wartime protocol,” the North said in a government statement carried by the official Korean Central News Agency.

“The long-standing situation of the Korean peninsula being neither at peace nor at war is finally over,” the statement said, adding that any provocation would trigger a “full-scale conflict and a nuclear war”.

The two Koreas have technically remained at war for the past six decades because the 1950-53 Korean War concluded with an armistice rather than a peace treaty.

The North had announced earlier this month that it was ripping up the armistice and other bilateral peace pacts signed with Seoul in protest against South Korea-US joint military exercises.

US Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel stressed that Washington would not be cowed by Pyongyang’s bellicose threats and stood ready to respond to “any eventuality”.

Source AFP