Pyongyang threatens nuke strike as US-SKorea military drills begin
Print Edition
SOUTH Korea and the United States began annual military drills yesterday despite North Korea’s threat of nuclear strikes in response to the exercises that it calls an invasion rehearsal.
The latest warning comes at a time of more tension following the defection of a senior North Korean diplomat and a US plan to place a high-tech missile defense system in South Korea.
North Korea’s military said in a statement yesterday that it will turn Seoul and Washington into “a heap of ashes through a Korean-style pre-emptive nuclear strike” if they show any signs of aggression toward North Korea’s territory.
North Korea’s “first-strike” units are ready to mount retaliatory attacks on South Korean and US forces involved in the drills, according to the statement, carried by Pyongyang’s state media.
South Korea’s Unification Ministry expressed “strong” regret over North Korea’s warning, saying the drills with the US are defensive in nature. Seoul and Washington have repeatedly said they have no intentions of invading Pyongyang.
The 12-day Ulchi Freedom Guardian drills that began yesterday are largely computer-simulated war games. The training involves 25,000 American troops and 50,000 South Korean soldiers, according to the US and South Korean militaries.
The drills come just days after Seoul announced that Thae Yong Ho, No. 2 at North Korea’s embassy in London, had recently defected to South Korea because he was disillusioned with North Korea’s leadership.
Pyongyang’s state media called him “human scum” and a criminal who had been ordered home for a series of alleged criminal acts, including sexually assaulting a minor.
North Korea has already boosted its war rhetoric because of the planned deployment of the US Terminal High-Altitude Area Defense system in South Korea, which Washington and Seoul says is needed because of the increasing North Korean threats.
About 28,500 US troops are in South Korea to help deter potential aggression from North Korea, a legacy of the 1950-53 Korean War that ended with armistice, not a peace treaty.
- About Us
- |
- Terms of Use
- |
-
RSS - |
- Privacy Policy
- |
- Contact Us
- |
- Shanghai Call Center: 962288
- |
- Tip-off hotline: 52920043
- 沪ICP证：沪ICP备05050403号-1
- |
- 互联网新闻信息服务许可证：31120180004
- |
- 网络视听许可证：0909346
- |
- 广播电视节目制作许可证：沪字第354号
- |
- 增值电信业务经营许可证：沪B2-20120012
Copyright © 1999- Shanghai Daily. All rights reserved.Preferably viewed with Internet Explorer 8 or newer browsers.
