N. Korea warns US faces ‘horrible disaster’
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North Korea yesterday warned the United States of a “horrible disaster” and put its troops on alert over a major naval drill involving a US aircraft carrier alongside South Korean and Japanese vessels.
The warning came after Seoul and Washington last week signed a new joint strategy to counter what they called the growing threat of a North Korean nuclear attack after Pyongyang allegedly restarted an ageing plutonium reactor.
The planned naval drill in waters around the Korean peninsula involves South Korea, Japan and the United States, which has deployed the nuclear-powered carrier USS George Washington.
North Korean troops had been ordered to “keep themselves fully ready to promptly launch operations any time,” a spokesman for the General Staff of the Korean People’s Army said in a statement on the state news agency.
North Korea said the situation on the peninsula was “getting strained again” and warned the US that the closer its forces came “the more unpredictable disasters their actions will cause.”
“The US will be wholly accountable for the unexpected horrible disaster to be met by its imperialist aggression forces,” the statement said.
“The US should bear in mind that the Korean people and army are highly alert to promptly and confidently cope with and foil blatant provocations of any hostile forces in the world with its own powerful military muscle.”
The drill, originally scheduled for three days from yesterday, was postponed because of an approaching typhoon, Japan’s Chief of the Maritime Staff Katsutoshi Kawano told a Tokyo press conference.
Japan will deploy two escort vessels for the drills which will focus on search and rescue, said Kawano, adding Japan will be involved tomorrow and Friday.
Asked about the reaction from North Korea, Kawano said, “We will conduct search and rescue drills as scheduled, and that is all.”
A US defense official last week described the three-nation drills as “increasingly common” and “designed to strengthen coordination and improve readiness to respond to situations such as humanitarian assistance and disaster relief.”
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