Amid growing jitters over the peace on the Korean Peninsula due to the cutoff of the inter-Korean hotline by the North, the isolated country is intentionally ratcheting up tension among its citizens, according the country’s media that is monitored here.

However, North Korea analysts here said the North’s current attitude appears to be less strained compared with the incidents in March 1993, when the country declared “a quasi-state of war,” four days before it seceded from the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons, also referred to as the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty. 

North Korea cut off the hot-line following its threat to do so last week, the third time since 2008.

The North’s Committee for the Peaceful Reunification of the Fatherland said last Friday that the hotline and all non-aggression pacts between Seoul and Pyongyang will be null and void as of Monday when South Korea and the U.S. kicked off their annual Key Resolve joint military drills.

The (North) Korean Central News Agency said later in the day that “the drills are aimed to rapidly deploy the reinforced U.S. imperialist aggressor forces in case of contingency on the Korean Peninsula.”

In a report under the headline of “DPRK People in War Posture,” the KCNA said that “the whole country turned out to be frontline areas.” DPRK stands for the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea.

The Rodong Sinmun, the mouthpiece of the Workers’ Party of (North) Korea (WPK), said organizations under the control of the WPK are preparing for combat under the decision of the party chapters in cities.

In addition, the number of people who are volunteering for military service is growing in the country, the newspaper said. (Yonhap News)