North Korea threatens to launch 'immediate physical strikes' as South Korea stages anti-submarine drills off coast

Tensions: A South Korean soldier hits an effigy of North Korean leader Kim Jong-Il during a rally in Seoul

Drills: The South Korean navy has been carrying out anti-submarine exercises off the coast, despite warnings from the north

Anger: More than 10,000 protesters gather at a rally today after the sinking of a South Korean warship in March

North Korea annouced today that it will scrap an agreement aimed at preventing accidental naval clashes after Seoul blamed it for a torpedo attack which sank a South Korean warship.

Tensions between the two countries have risen dramatically since a team of international investigators said last week that a torpedo fired by a North Korean submarine sank the warship on March 26, killing 46 sailors.

North Korea has denied any involvement in the sinking and warned any retaliation would mean war.
The country's military said in a statement released by the official Korean Central News Agency: 'Immediate physical strikes will be launched against any South Korean ships that intrude into North Korean waters.'



Defiant: South Korean sailors manning the guns on a warship during 2nd Fleet training

It said it will also start a review to possibly ban South Korean personnel and vehicles from entering a joint industrial park in Kaesong - the last remaining major inter-Korean reconciliation project.

The military said the measures are its first-phase reaction to 'the reckless moves of the group of traitors and confrontation maniacs'.

A South Korean defence ministry official said the country would 'resolutely' deal with its neighbour's measures.
The announcement came hours after a fleet of South Korean warships staged a large-scale anti-submarine drill off the west coast, despite warnings that such exercises will drive the peninsula to the brink of war.

The two Koreas are still technically at war because their 1950-53 conflict ended with an armistice, not a peace treaty.

As a result of the Korean War, the U.S. stations 28,500 troops in South Korea. They are on their highest alert since the north made its second nuclear test in May last year.

The JoongAng Ilbo newspaper, citing a Seoul official, reported that the South Korean and U.S. combined forces raised its surveillance level - known as Watch Condition - up a level from three to two. Level one is the highest.

South Korea, backed by the U.S., Japan and other allies, has begun carrying out punitive measures including slashing trade, resuming propaganda warfare and barring the north's cargo ships.

But North Korea has responded by threatening to wage 'all-out counterattacks' and barring South Korean ships and airliners from its waters and airspace.
North Korean Major General Pak Chan Su said: 'We will never tolerate the slightest provocations of our enemies, and will answer to that with all-out war.

'This is the firm standpoint of our People's Army.'

Ten warships fired artillery and dropped depth charges during the South Korean anti-submarine drills off the coast of Taean, 95 miles south of Seoul.

It is the first anti-submarine drill since the Cheonan disaster, which occurred about 100 miles to the north.

South Korea is planning two major joint military drills with the U.S. off the west coast in July.