North Korea's military to enter top combat ready posture

North Korea's military will put its missile and artillery units into combat ready posture in order to protect its sovereignty, the country's state media said Tuesday. Officials in Seoul said the level of the war posture may mean the highest alert. "From this moment, the Supreme Command puts all of its field artillery including strategic rocket units and long-range artillery units into the No. 1 combat ready posture," the Korean People's Army's Supreme Command said in a statement carried by the (North) Korean Central News Agency. The artillery units target the U.S. mainland, Hawaii and Guam and other U.S. military bases in the Pacific as well as South Korea, the statement said. The statement said the country will "show off our army and people's stern reaction to safeguard our sovereignty and the highest dignity through military actions," referring to its leader Kim Jong-un as the highest dignity. The country's "crystal clear judgment" is that it cannot overlook the United States' nuclear threats and military actions any longer. It will also display the military's powerful intention to the South through physical actions, the statement noted. The statement came as the country ratcheted up military threats to the two allies over their two joint military drills this month and the latest punitive sanctions adopted by the United Nations following the North's Feb. 12 nuclear test. "The US nuclear war racket has gone beyond the danger line and entered the phase of an actual war, defying the repeated warnings from the army and people of the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK)," the statement also said, citing the recent firing drill by a B-52 bomber of the U.S. in the South Korean sky. Denouncing the South, it also noted that "The present South Korean puppet authorities tried to link the Cheonan sinking case with the DPRK and shift the blame for the Yeonpyong Island shelling on to the DPRK." "They should be mindful that everything will be reduced to ashes and flames the moment the first attack is unleashed," the Supreme Command statement also said. A government official said a statement by the Supreme Command is very rare because the organ is an emergency body operative only in war time. In response to the North Korean military's latest move, Seoul's defense ministry said they are closely monitoring the communist country to detect any signs of provocations, though the North has yet to show any abnormal activities. South Korea upgraded its military readiness and surveillance status earlier this month during the joint drills with the U.S., and has since maintained the heightened alert status. "The No. 1 combat readiness status is a term first used by North's state media, which means the highest level of combat readiness status," a senior ministry said. "It seems to be aimed at creating a war-like situation to unite the North Korean people, though it could result in real provocations." The ministry said intelligence officials are currently looking into the intention of North Korea's order for a combat posture while South Korea commemorates the third anniversary of the sinking of the Cheonan warship, which was torpedoed by North Korea in the Yellow Sea. South Korea's presidential office Cheong Wa Dae also said it was analyzing Pyongyang's real intentions, though there has been no unusual move in the North's military.