N. Korea Demands US, S. Korea Get Out of Buffer Zone

If the US and South Korea don't stop allowing tourists and journalists into the buffer zone on the heavily armed border between North and South Korea, the North will retaliate with “unpredictable incidents including the loss of human lives in this area for which the US side will be wholly to blame,” Pyongyang warned today. Belligerence like this is typical for North Korea, but the warning came amidst high tensions over North Korea's suspected sinking of a South Korean vessel.

The statement form North Korea, which called tours in the "demilitarized zone" a form of "psychological warfare," was particularly troubling to South Koreans as it came only three days after the South Korean naval patrol ship went down. The incident tapped into the South's deep-seated fears about the North Korean military, the New York Times reports. (More North Korea stories.)