{"id":15076,"date":"2013-03-07T02:03:41","date_gmt":"2013-03-07T02:03:41","guid":{"rendered":""},"modified":"2013-03-07T02:03:41","modified_gmt":"2013-03-07T02:03:41","slug":"NKorea-threatens--pre-emptive--nuclear-strike-on-US","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/asiancemagazine.com\/?p=15076","title":{"rendered":"NKorea threatens “pre-emptive” nuclear strike on US"},"content":{"rendered":"

North Korea threatened a “pre-emptive” nuclear strike against the United States and any other aggressors today as the UN Security Council prepared to adopt tough sanctions against the isolated state.<\/strong><\/p>\n

A foreign ministry spokesman also warned that a second Korean war was “unavoidable”, with both the United States and South Korea refusing Pyongyang’s demands to cancel a large-scale joint military exercise next week.<\/strong><\/p>\n

“Now that the US is set to light a fuse for a nuclear war, (our) revolutionary armed forces… will exercise the right to a pre-emptive nuclear attack to destroy the strongholds of the aggressors,” the spokesman said in a statement carried by the Korean Central News Agency (KCNA).<\/p>\n

In the past, the North has threatened attacks on US forces in South Korea and also claims to possess long-range missiles capable of carrying a nuclear warhead to the continental United States.<\/p>\n

The latest threat came two days after the North Korean military announced it would rip up the 1953 armistice agreement ending the Korean War — a move that would theoretically pave the way for a resumption of hostilities.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Tensions have escalated sharply on the Korean peninsula in recent days, ahead of the UN Security Council vote and the annual US-South Korean military exercise scheduled to begin on Monday.<\/p>\n

The Security Council was expected to adopt a resolution later today tightening the UN sanctions screws on North Korea after its widely condemned nuclear test last month.<\/p>\n

Amounting to one of the toughest sanctions regimes ever ordered by the United Nations, the resolution also threatens “further significant measures” if the North stages a new nuclear test or rocket launch.<\/p>\n

Today’s Pyongyang foreign ministry statement warned that adoption of the resolution would fast track North Korean plans to carry out promised “powerful” countermeasures.<\/strong><\/p>\n

The spokesman also stressed that the decision to “nullify” the 1953 armistice would come into effect when the US-South Korean military drill begins on Monday.
\n
\n“This means that from that moment the revolutionary armed forces will take military action for self-defence against any target any moment,” he said.<\/p>\n

Meanwhile, North Korean state television showed a massive military and civilian rally held Thursday in Pyongyang’s giant Kim Il-Sung square.<\/p>\n

The rally was addressed by senior military and party officials who denounced the United States and warned that Washington would reap the consequences of its “aggression”.<\/p>\n

Sabre-rattling and displays of brinkmanship are nothing new to the Korean peninsula, but there are concerns that the current volatile mix of bellicose rhetoric and military drills could spark a random clash with the potential to snowball.<\/p>\n

Bruce Klingner, a Korea expert at the conservative Heritage Foundation in Washington, said the “risk of miscalculation and escalation” was heightened by the presence of new leaders in both Koreas.<\/p>\n

Kim Jong-Un, believed to be in his late 20s, succeeded his late father Kim Jong-Il as North Korea’s supreme leader a little more than a year ago.<\/p>\n

South Korean President Park Geun-Hye was only sworn in two weeks ago and has been working without a fully functioning cabinet because of a policy stalemate in parliament.<\/p>\n

“Kim Jong-un lacks experience and may stumble across red lines that his predecessors would have known not to have crossed,” Klingner said.<\/p>\n

For all its claims, North Korea is widely judged to be many years away from delivering a nuclear warhead to the US mainland.<\/p>\n

A successful long-range rocket launch in December suggested progress in ballistic technology but without the re-entry capability required for a genuine inter-continental ballistic missile.<\/p>\n

This is also not the first time the North has threatened to do away with the armistice agreement — having made a similar promise in 2009.<\/p>\n

Because the Korean War combatants never signed a peace treaty, the two Koreas remain technically at war, with the armistice operating as a ceasefire pact.<\/p>\n

Source AFP<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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