hankyoreh

located in the West Sea

As a result of North Korea’s announcement on Wednesday that it was no longer bound by the Armistice Agreement and it would take military action as reaction to South Korea’s full participation in the U.S.-led Proliferation Security Initiative (PSI), ROK-US Combined Forces Command raised the Watch Conditions (Watchcon) alert status from 3 to 2 at 7:15 a.m. Thursday. The defense readiness condition (Defcon), however, remains at its normal level of Defcon 4.

Defense Ministry spokesman Won Tae-jae explained the raising of the Watchcon status by saying that while they have yet to detect any unusual movements in North Korea, the measure was taken in consideration of the current, potential and expected threat. He said the decision was based on a bilateral agreement drawing from the analysis of South Korean and U.S. intelligence and operations officials. Accordingly, the numbers of both high altitude reconnaissance flights and intelligence analysis agents have been increased to look for and analyze signs of North Korean provocations.

A Watchcon 2 alert means South Korea and the U.S. have entered a state of emergency, bolstering their surveillance and analysis of North Korea in response to a viable and significant threat of a North Korean provocation. It has been two years and seven months since the last time South Korea was on Watchcon 2, immediately after North Korea’s first nuclear test on October 15, 2006.

The five-stage Watchcon meter is normally kept at Watchcon 4, but as tensions rise, the Watchcon gradually rises. Since the armistice of 1953, an alert status of Watchon 1, when an enemy provocation is clear, has never been announced. This is the fifth time Watchcon 2 has been announced.

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