North Korea, angry at a leaflet campaign by Seoul groups urging the overthrow of its leader, accused South Korea yesterday of planning a pre-emptive strike and threatened to reduce it to “debris” in retaliation.
The North’s military said that it would use a “more powerful and advanced” strike of its own if South Korea ever launched a pre-emptive strike.
“The puppet authorities [Seoul] had better bear in mind that the advanced pre-emptive strike of our own style will reduce everything … to debris, not just setting them on fire,” it said in a statement carried by state news agency KCNA.
“It will turn out to be a just war … to build an independent reunified state on it,” it said.
The North’s military described its pre-emptive capability as “beyond imagination, relying on striking means more powerful than a nuclear weapon.”
The 1.1 million-strong military has for years deployed hundreds of conventional missiles targeting the South.
Relations between the two nations have been frosty for months. But the latest warning, in unusually strong language, was in response to the actions of South Korean activists and defectors, who have launched balloons carrying tens of thousands of leaflets across the heavily fortified border.
On Monday, activists launched more than 40,000 leaflets from a boat near the eastern sea border.
These urged North Koreans to rise up against leader Kim Jong-il, whom they described as a “murderous” dictator, and repeated claims that he suffers from paralysis following a stroke in the middle of August.
Kim’s health is an especially sensitive subject in the country, which gives its citizens only official information.
Pyongyang has complained before about South Korean reports that Kim suffered a stroke for which he needed brain surgery. Japanese Prime Minister Taro Aso said yesterday in Tokyo that Kim is likely in hospital, but is still capable of making decisions.
The military warned it would take “resolute practical action” if the South pursues a “confrontational racket” by spreading leaflets and conducting a smear campaign “with sheer fabrications.”
At military talks on Monday the North repeated threats to evict South Koreans from the Kaesong joint industrial complex unless Seoul stops the cross-border leaflets.
Yesterday’s statement rejected Seoul’s arguments that it cannot stop such actions in a democracy.
It said the leaflet launches were masterminded by the South’s spy agency.
It also warned of a “total severance” of relations unless the conservative South Korean government respects summit accords reached with previous Seoul governments in 2000 and last year.
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