But this is above even Pyongyang's usual standards:
The U.S. and South Korea launched the annual joint military exercises on Monday, which the North had previously said would be considered a declaration of war. Some 29,500 U.S. troops remain in South Korea as a legacy of the 1950-53 Korean War that ended in a cease-fire that has never been replaced by a peace treaty.
The North's military said Tuesday it "would not be bound to the (armistice agreement) in taking on its own initiative military measures for protecting the security and sovereignty of the country in the future. It called the exercises a "war action declaring the (armistice) null and void."
The North Korean military "reserves the right to undertake a pre-emptive action for self-defense against the enemy at a crucial time it deems necessary to defend itself," the North's army outpost at the truce village of Panmunjom said in the statement carried by the official Korean Central News Agency.
The U.S. military has said the exercises — mostly simulation-driven drills that run through Sept. 1 and include some 17,000 troops — are defensive in nature and not a provocation.
The armistice is "null and void?" Yes, North Korea's military is declining and would be decimated by South Korean and American forces if North Korea attacks. But what really matters is does the North Korean leadership know this? They could order military action in the belief they can win.
Actually, even if they know they will lose, they could see failure to attack as guaranteeing they collapse and hope that even a long shot at toppling South Korea is a better chance than just sitting, starving, and falling farther behind. And eventually collapsing.
Just what are the North Koreans up to?
