N Korea Slams Seoul for ‘War Preparations’
Press TV Reports
North Korea has renewed threats of war to South Korea, warnings against a planned joint military drill with the US, amid rising tension.
“The Lee Myung-Bak group of traitors should never forget that the Korean People’s Army is fully ready for an all-out confrontation,” a spokesman for the army General Staff said on Thursday.
The statement, carried by the North’s official Korean Central News Agency (KCNA), comes hours before the arrival of 10.45 pm (1345 GMT) US Secretary of States Hilary Rodham Clinton in Seoul.
Pyongyang has denounced the US-South Korean military drill that involves some 26,000 US troops and an undisclosed number of South Korean soldiers, as “war preparations” that would entail a “heavy price.”
The US-South Korean combined forces command announced Wednesday that the annual “Key Resolve/Foal Eagle” drill would take place from March 9-20 across the peninsula.
“The war preparations by the US and South Korean authorities that bring in the fiery winds of war to the Korean peninsula will exact a high price as they are against peace and the times,” KCNA said.
Seoul officials, for their part, have accused the North of preparing to test its longest-range missile, theoretically capable of hitting positions in Alaska, within two or three weeks.
Darkening relations have raised concerns of another inter-Korean war in the peninsula.
South Korean Defense Minister Lee Sang-Hee has also predicted that recent spats could intensify into a limited naval clash around the disputed border in the Yellow Sea.
Conservative President Lee has sparked Pyongyang’s ire by adapting a tougher stance towards the North, breaking from his predecessors’ policy of engagement and cutting economic aid to push for denuclearization of its neighbors.
North Korea said last month it was nullifying all peace accords with the South including a 1991 pact over the sea border.
The Press TV correspondent in Soul, Frank Smith, said a full-scale military aggression between the North and South was highly doubtful despite the possibility of skirmishes over the disputed border.
Smith also said the threat of North Korea launching a ballistic missile attack on the continental US was slim as former test-firings failed within minutes of launch.
Also See:
Project 2012: Predictions Coming True? Nuclear War Begins Soon? Updated
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