(Newser)
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North Korea has made good on one of its threats in the wake of new UN sanctions, but luckily it wasn't the one about nuking the US. Instead, Pyongyang announced it was scrapping its non-aggression pacts with South Korea and unplugging the hotline between the two countries, reports AFP. This apparently means that the 1953 armistice between the two countries will be null and void—as the North had threatened earlier this week—along with a 1991 agreement that sought to further reduce tensions.
"The DPRK (North Korea) abrogates all agreements on nonaggressions reached between the North and the South," said a government statement, reports the South's Yonhap News Agency. Pyongyang also said it was closing the Panmunjom crossing point between the two countries, reports the BBC. Leader Kim Jong Un reportedly visited front-line troops and told them to be ready to "annihilate the enemy." Meanwhile, a general warns that "intercontinental ballistic missiles ... are on a standby," ready to turn Washington into "a sea of fire." The South is hitting back, the New York Times reports: If the North launches a nuclear attack southward, Kim's regime "will be erased from the Earth," the South says.
