North Korea on Saturday declared it had entered into a "state of war" with South Korea and warned Seoul and Washington that any provocation would swiftly escalate into an all-out nuclear conflict.Once you push stupid to a certain point there's no further you can go.
The United States said it took the announcement "seriously," even though it followed a familiar pattern, while South Korea largely dismissed it as an old threat dressed in new 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 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 U.S. or South Korean 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-U.S. joint military exercises.
Voiding the ceasefire theoretically opened the way to a resumption of hostilities, although the armistice was approved by the U.N. General Assembly, and both the U.N. and South Korea repudiated the North's unilateral withdrawal.