North Korea issues nuclear threat

North Korea has warned that US-South Korean co-operation could bring nuclear war to the region.

The warning came as the South began artillery drills amid lingering tension nearly three weeks after the North’s deadly shelling of a South Korean island.

The South’s naval live-fire drills are due to run until Friday at 27 sites.

North Korea, however, lashed out at Seoul, accusing South Korea of collaborating with the US and Japan to step up pressure on Pyongyang. That co-operation “is nothing but treachery escalating the tension between the North and the South and bringing the dark clouds of a nuclear war to hang over the Korean peninsula,” Pyongyang’s main Rodong Sinmun newspaper said in a commentary carried by the North’s official Korean Central News Agency.

In a show of unity, top diplomats from South Korea, the US and Japan met in Washington last week and said they would not resume negotiations aimed at persuading North Korea to abandon its nuclear weapons programme until the country’s behaviour changed.

Admiral Mike Mullen, chairman of the US Joint Chiefs of Staff, visited South Korea last week and warned Pyongyang to stop its “belligerent, reckless behaviour.”

In other words, this is a SERIOUS THREAT!