Talks Between North, South Korea Resume as Tensions Rise

High level talks between North and South Korea are set to resume Sunday, after marathon all night talks to defuse simmering tension on the peninsula.

The meeting between top aides from the North (DPRK) and South at the Panmunjom truce village inside the Demilitarized Zone began Saturday evening, as the deadline for a Pyongyang ultimatum to Seoul expired.

The DPRK has threatened “imminent” military action if South Korea does not halt what Pyongyang says is a campaign of “broadcasting propaganda” via loudspeakers across the Demilitarized Zone.

On Friday, DPRK state broadcaster KCNA warned the loudspeakers were an open act of aggression.

“Psychological warfare against (the DPRK) is, in essence, an open act of war against it," KCNA stated.

South Korea has responded by warning the DPRK it “would act proportionally on any threats,” including possible attacks on the loudspeakers.

"In case of fire on broadcasting stations in the Demilitarized Zone, our armed forces will counterattack,” a South Korean military official told Russian media outlet TASS.

The loudspeaker dispute comes at a time of heightened tension between North and South Korea. On Thursday Seoul accused Pyongyang of firing four shells into the South. When South Korea responded with an artillery barrage, the DPRK declared a “quasi-state of war.”

The DPRK and South Korea have shared an uneasy truce since 1953. Although the truce brought an end to three years of war, relations since have oscillated between joint moves towards rapprochement, and hostile saber rattling.