North Korean state media says the Hermit Kingdom has carried out its threat to nullify the armistice that ended the Korean War in the early 1950s.  Pyongyang is angry over joint U.S.-South Korean military exercises and tighter international sanctions.

An editorial in the state-run newspaper, “As the armistice agreement has been nullified, no one can expect what will happen next.”

10,000 South Korea and 3,000 U.S. troops later today will take part in the second day of an 11-day drill that coincide with field exercises that started on 1 March.  It’s an annual event.  North Korea is staging its own counter drills, but observers say there’s nothing going on that’s out of the ordinary.

But North Korea severed a Red Cross communications line that was used for discussing aid shipments and reuniting separated families.  Tensions right now are believed to be the worst level since North Korea shelled an island off the South in 2010.