Not in front of the kids: Koreas ramp up rhetoric over festivals Published on Tuesday 5 June 2012 00:00 North Korea, known for its frequent blood-curdling threats against its southern neighbour, took another step in the rhetoric war yesterday by issuing a statement that gave the specific co-ordinates of media outlets in the south, which a promise to shell them. The North Korean statement, which expressed outrage over South Korean media criticism of ongoing children's festivals in Pyongyang, is the latest in a series of threats aimed at Seoul's conservative government and news agencies following the December death of Kim Jong Il, the father of new leader, Kim Jong Un. North Korea has not yet acted on its threats. Still, yesterday's comments from the general staff of the Korean People's Army contained a specific mention of the longitude and latitude of the locations of seven media outlets. North Korea said it had targeted those agencies and would attack if Seoul does not apologise for orchestrating a "vicious smear campaign" against the festivals in the North's capital. In Seoul, the Unification Ministry, which handles relations with the North, called the statement a "grave provocation." "It's too serious to put aside," ministry spokesman Kim Hyung-suk said. Ties between the divided Koreas are at a low point following a failed North Korean rocket launch in April that Washington, Seoul and others have called a cover for a test of long-range missile technology. North Korea says the rocket, which broke apart shortly after lift-off, was meant to launch an observational satellite. Among the South Korean media groups North Korea threatened was Channel A, a television network affiliated with the conservative Dong-a Ilbo newspaper, which has described the children's festivals in Pyongyang as an Adolph Hitler-style "political show." Channel A and other South Korean media have reported this year's celebrations will be the North's largest ever, saying Kim Jong Un is trying to obtain allegiance from a generation of children who will join the army in a few years under a mandatory conscription system. "Officers and men of the army corps, divisions and regiments on the front, and strategic rocket forces in the depth of the country, are loudly calling for the issue of order to mete out punishment," according to the North's statement, carried by the official Korean Central News Agency. About 20,000 children across North Korea are celebrating the 66th anniversary of the Korean Children's Union, according to KCNA. During the six-day festival that began on Sunday, children planned to tour Pyongyang, participate in political and cultural events and visit a zoo and restaurants, the agency said. The Koreas are still technically at war because their 1950-53 war ended with an armistice.