Beijing: South Korean officials said they would hold high-level talks with their North Korean counterparts in a bid to defuse tensions.
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The meeting was set to take place at the border village of Panmunjom on Saturday evening, half an hour after the deadline set by North Korea for Seoul to cease anti-propaganda broadcasts across the border.
It followed an exchange of fire between the two militaries on Thursday, with South Korea's military retaliating against what it said were North Korean artillery strikes targeting loudspeakers making the anti-Pyongyang broadcasts.
South Korea on Friday rejected the North's ultimatum, which had been set with a deadline of Saturday 5pm local time.
It prompted leader Kim Jong-un to order his frontline troops to prepare for battle, raising concerns that the war of rhetoric could escalate into the most serious military confrontation between the two sides in years, despite calls for calm from the China, the reclusive North's main economic backer.
The North has deployed towed artillery to the demilitarised zone for an apparent attack on the South Korean loudspeakers near the countries' western border, South Korean news agency Yonhap reported on Saturday morning, as military chiefs of South Korea and the United States resolved on Saturday to launch powerful counterattacks in the event of any "additional provocations by North Korea".
Many in South Korea are accustomed to discounting North Korea's frequent threats over the years. The top-trending hashtag on Twitter in South Korea was #WeAreFineThankYou, after an influx of #PrayForKorea tweets from overseas.
But analysts say the North may need some save-facing measure to back down from its ultimatum, as has happened in previous confrontations.
Yang Moo-jin, professor at the University of North Korean Studies in Seoul, said the fact that the shells had caused no damage was positive.
"There is always a chance for war, but that chance is very, very low," he told Reuters.
In its fresh warning on Saturday, the North's foreign ministry reiterated its claims that the South had fabricated allegations that the North had fired first.
"The army and people of the DPRK are poised not to just counteract or make any retaliation but not to rule out an all-out war to protect the social system, their own choice, at the risk of their lives," the North said in a statement carried by the country's official Korean Central News Agency.
The North said it has exercised self-restraint for decades and that "no one's talk about self-restraint is helpful to putting the situation under control", in an apparent rebuff of China, whose political clout with the North has diminished after Kim Jong-un executed his uncle, Jang Song-thaek, who was seen to be close with leaders in Beijing.
South Korea's loudspeaker broadcasts resumed last week for the first time in a decade after two South Korean soldiers were maimed this month by land mines it said were planted by the North. Pyongyang denied responsibility.
South Korea has raised its military readiness to its highest level and in a surprise visit to a Seoul army base, President Park Geun-hye ordered a "thorough and stern" retaliation to any further provocation from the North.
"We can never tolerate any North Korean provocations that could endanger the safety of our soldiers and people," she said during the visit on Friday, dressed in army fatigues.
With agencies
