North Korea yesterday issued its latest belligerent threat, warning of an indiscriminate “pre-emptive nuclear strike of justice” on Washington and Seoul, this time in reaction to the start of huge US-South Korean military drills.
Such threats have been a staple of young North Korean leader Kim Jong-un since he took power after his father’s death in December 2011, but they spike especially when Washington and Seoul stage what they call annual defensive springtime war games.
Pyongyang says the drills, which started yesterday and run through the end of next month, are invasion rehearsals.
The North’s powerful National Defense Commission threatened strikes against targets in the South, US bases in the Pacific and the US mainland, saying its enemies “are working with bloodshot eyes to infringe upon the dignity, sovereignty and vital rights” of North Korea.
“If we push the buttons to annihilate the enemies even right now, all bases of provocations will be reduced to seas of flames and ashes in a moment,” it said.
South Korean Ministry of Defense spokesman Moon Sang-gyun yesterday said that North Korea must refrain from a “rash act that brings destruction upon itself.”
The drills will be the largest ever staged, involving 300,000 South Korean and 17,000 US troops.
Yonhap news agency, citing military sources, reported that the allies are to work on drills for precision attacks on the North Korean leadership and its nuclear and missile arsenal in the event of war.
A pre-emptive large-scale military strike against the Kim dynasty is highly unlikely. There is also considerable debate about whether North Korea is even capable of the kind of “strikes” it threatens.
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