North Korea: Does nullifying the 1953 Korean armistice mean war?

Things are getting very tense on the Korean Peninsula

A South Korean soldier walks up the stairs at an observation post on March 12, near the demilitarized zone, which separates the Koreas.
(Image credit: REUTERS/Kim Hong-Ji)

On Monday, things went from bad to worse on the Korean peninsula. The official North Korean state newspaper Rodong Sinmun said that the 1953 armistice that ended the Korean War had been "declared invalid," and that "the time for final showdown has arrived." Pyongyang also apparently disconnected the emergency hotline between North and South Korea, a Red Cross telephone line, blaming a joint U.S.-South Korea military exercise that began on March 1 and continues into April. Last week, North Korea threatened to pre-emptively nuke the U.S.

In response, Washington added new sanctions against North Korea, on top of tough United Nations Security Council measures implemented last week to punish Pyongyang for a February nuclear weapon test. The new U.S. sanctions target the Foreign Trade Bank of North Korea, trying to freeze it from the U.S. financial system, and blacklist three North Korean officials.

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Peter Weber, The Week US

Peter has worked as a news and culture writer and editor at The Week since the site's launch in 2008. He covers politics, world affairs, religion and cultural currents. His journalism career began as a copy editor at a financial newswire and has included editorial positions at The New York Times Magazine, Facts on File, and Oregon State University.