Military maneuvers with Seoul, Tokyo reignite nuclear rhetoric
WND
In the face of ongoing U.S.-South Korean military drills, North Korea once again has threatened an “all-out war” against the United States and South Korea.
In his capacity as chairman of the National Defense Commission, or NDC, North Korean leader Kim Jong-un today threatened the Korean peninsula and the “U.S. mainland” if the U.S. didn’t withdraw its “policy of hostility” against the North as a result of the ongoing joint military maneuvers.
“The (United States) must bear it in mind that reckless provocative acts would meet our retaliatory strikes and lead to an all-out war of justice for a final showdown with the United States,” an NDC spokesman said.
“We emphasize again that the United States must withdraw various measures aimed to isolate and strangulate us,” the spokesman said. “Dependent upon this are peace and security, not only on the Korean peninsula but the U.S. mainland as well.”
North Korea’s latest threats against the U.S. mainland renews similar threats it made last April when the U.S. and South Korea undertook similar military maneuvers, with the U.S. flying B-2s and B-52s to bombing sites just a few miles from the border between North and South Korea.
It led Pyongyang to claim the U.S. intended to launch a nuclear war against North Korea, prompting the U.S. to transfer naval ships armed with Aegis anti-ballistic missile systems into the area.
North Korea apparently reacted with such bellicose rhetoric that it caught the Obama administration off guard, sources say.
The latest North Korean outburst follows a two-day naval drill involving Japan, South Korea and the U.S., which included an American nuclear aircraft carrier. As before, this prompted threats from Pyongyang.
Calling the drills a “serious military provocation,” North Korea threated to “bury in the sea” the U.S. carrier involved in the exercise.
Pyongyang demanded the U.S. lift sanctions against the North and halt the “constant nuclear blackmails” and military drills.
It called as “intolerable contempt” a U.S. demand that North Korea first show a tangible commitment of abandoning its nuclear program if it wanted talks with the U.S.
“The denuclearization of the Korean peninsula is an unalterable policy goal of the DPRK government,” the NDC statement said. However, it qualified the statement with a demand for total removal of all U.S. nuclear threats against the North.
Reposted with permission.
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