North Korea and South Korea, locked for weeks in exchanges of angry rhetoric and heightened military readiness, yesterday traded more threats, with Pyongyang saying its military had trained to attack Seoul’s presidential Blue House.
North Korea is renowned for its saber-rattling and often makes threats of attack and even annihilation against South Korea and the US.
However, its tone has been especially belligerent in recent weeks and aimed at South Korean President Park Geun-hye following her warnings of regime collapse in Pyongyang after it conducted a nuclear test and rocket launch earlier this year.
Photo: AP
North Korean leader Kim Jong-un guided what state media said was the North’s largest-ever exercise of long-range artillery training, with a simulated attack on South Korea’s presidential and government offices.
Kim ordered the military to be on high alert “so that it may mercilessly pound the reactionary ruling machines in Seoul, the cesspool of evils, and advance to accomplish the historic cause of national reunification once it receives an order for attack,” the Korean Central news agency said.
Tensions have been high on the Korean Peninsula since the North conducted a nuclear test in January and a long-range rocket launch last month, which prompted new sanctions earlier this month by the UN Security Council.
The tensions also come ahead of a rare congress of the North’s ruling Workers’ Party in May. Some analysts expect Kim to claim a signature achievement, such as another nuclear test, in the run-up to the congress as he looks to bolster his stature at home.
Park warned the North to end provocative actions and “escape from the illusion” that it would benefit from nuclear armament, ordering her country’s military to maintain “maximum combat power.”
“Reckless provocation will be the road to destruction for the North’s regime,” Park said at an anniversary event for the 2010 sinking of a naval ship that killed 46 people.
US intelligence analysts now say the North “probably” possesses a miniaturized nuclear warhead, CNN reported yesterday, citing several unnamed US officials, although the assessment is not the consensus view in Washington.
Those officials say they still do not know whether such a device would actually work, CNN said.
Experts have said the North has yet to demonstrate that it can launch a ballistic missile mounted with a nuclear warhead that can sustain the stress of atmospheric re-entry and then be guided to hit a target with reliability.
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