N. Korea slams new defense chief
NORTH Korea lambasted South Korea's new defense chief yesterday for threatening to launch air strikes against the North and accused the South of causing "uncontrollable, extreme" tension on the peninsula.
The South's Defense Minister Kim Kwan-jin told a confirmation hearing last week that jets would bomb the North if it stages another attack like the shelling on a front-line island that killed four South Koreans. Kim took office on Saturday, replacing a predecessor who resigned amid criticism that South Korea's response to the November 23 shelling was too slow and weak.
The North's official Korean Central News Agency issued a statement yesterday accusing the South of staging a series of "frantic provocations" including the minister's remarks.
"The frantic provocations ... are rapidly driving the situation on the Korean peninsula to an uncontrollable extreme phase," it said in a dispatch from Pyongyang.
The dispatch said South Korea plans to stage new naval drills with the United States soon, start its own live-fire drills from today and deploy missiles, rockets and other sophisticated weapons to Yeonpyeong that was hit by the artillery barrage.
"The puppet military warlike forces were reported to have already worked out the so-called 'retaliatory plan' which calls for sparking off an armed clash after getting on the nerves of the (North Korean) military and taking a large-scale counteraction under this pretext," it said.
South Korea's military declined yesterday to confirm whether it has such a military plan. Joint Chiefs of Staff officers only said a new joint drill with the US - which would follow last week's massive joint naval drill in the Yellow Sea - is still under discussion with Washington and the live-fire exercise is a routine drill that was scheduled well before the artillery barrage.
Kim inspected an army base near the heavily fortified land border yesterday and urged troops to firm their combat capability and mental toughness, according to his office.
The South's Defense Minister Kim Kwan-jin told a confirmation hearing last week that jets would bomb the North if it stages another attack like the shelling on a front-line island that killed four South Koreans. Kim took office on Saturday, replacing a predecessor who resigned amid criticism that South Korea's response to the November 23 shelling was too slow and weak.
The North's official Korean Central News Agency issued a statement yesterday accusing the South of staging a series of "frantic provocations" including the minister's remarks.
"The frantic provocations ... are rapidly driving the situation on the Korean peninsula to an uncontrollable extreme phase," it said in a dispatch from Pyongyang.
The dispatch said South Korea plans to stage new naval drills with the United States soon, start its own live-fire drills from today and deploy missiles, rockets and other sophisticated weapons to Yeonpyeong that was hit by the artillery barrage.
"The puppet military warlike forces were reported to have already worked out the so-called 'retaliatory plan' which calls for sparking off an armed clash after getting on the nerves of the (North Korean) military and taking a large-scale counteraction under this pretext," it said.
South Korea's military declined yesterday to confirm whether it has such a military plan. Joint Chiefs of Staff officers only said a new joint drill with the US - which would follow last week's massive joint naval drill in the Yellow Sea - is still under discussion with Washington and the live-fire exercise is a routine drill that was scheduled well before the artillery barrage.
Kim inspected an army base near the heavily fortified land border yesterday and urged troops to firm their combat capability and mental toughness, according to his office.
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