North Korea Threatens War Over South's Christmas Lights

It's the season of goodwill to all mankind, but not on the Korean peninsula. The two rival neighbors are once again threatening to go to war -- this time over a gaudy display of Christmas lights.

North Korea's Grinch-like military reportedly is threatening to shell a floodlit metal tower -- decked with 100,000 light bulbs and topped with an illuminated cross -- that the South has erected on its side of the heavily militarized border, according to the South's Yonhap News Agency. The Christmas tree-shaped beacon was switched on Tuesday night at a ceremony that saw a Santa-hatted choir -- surrounded by gun-toting marines -- sing "Joy to the World" and other carols.

A South Korean military officer stands guard as Christians prepare a lighting ceremony in front of a Christmas tree atop a military-controlled hill near the tense land border in Gimpo, west of Seoul, on December 21, 2010. South Korean marines were on guard on December 21, to protect a Christmas tree, the latest focus of tensions with North Korea following Seoul's artillery drill near the disputed sea border a day earlier. (Kim Jae-Myung, AFP/Getty Images)

Kim Jae-Myung, AFP/Getty Images

A South Korean military officer stands guard Tuesday as Christians prepare a lighting ceremony in front of a Christmas tree atop a military-controlled hill near the militarized border. The tree is the latest focus of tensions with North Korea.

"I hope that Christ's love and peace will spread to the North Korean people," said Lee Young-Hoon, pastor of the Seoul church that organized the ceremony, according to The Associated Press.

Pyongyang has dismissed claims that the tower is a religious symbol, saying it's nothing more than Southern propaganda. The brightly lit steel tree sits on a peak high enough for it to be seen by North Koreans living in impoverished border towns, which frequently suffer electricity cuts and food shortages. The officially atheist North warned that lighting the tree would constitute a "dangerous, rash act" that could trigger a war, according to the AP.

Kim Kwan-jin, the South's defense minister, promised a tough response to any anti-tree activity. "We will hand a daring punishment so as to remove the source of artillery fire" if the North attacks the tower, he told the parliament Tuesday, according to Yonhap.

The lighting ceremony went ahead without incident.

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This is the first time the tree has been illuminated since 2003, when the South agreed to shut it down -- along with loudspeaker propaganda broadcasts over the border -- in an attempt to ease tensions with the North. However, after the unprovoked shelling of a South Korean island last month, which killed two soldiers and two civilians, President Lee Myung-bak's administration has become increasingly focused on proving it's not willing to be pushed around by the North.

The South has staged a series of military exercises with the U.S. in recent weeks, and today launched a four-day naval drill in the Sea of Japan, about 60 miles from the maritime border with the North. A one-day live-fire artillery exercise is scheduled to take place Thursday at Pocheon, about 25 miles south of the demilitarized zone.