JOIN USN Korea warns of N-war
In a commentary published on Saturday and seen in Seoul on Sunday, the state-run Tongil Sinbo weekly claimed the US has been deploying a vast amount of nuclear weapons in South Korea and Japan, and that they were ready to be used against the North.
“North Korea is completely within the range of the US nuclear attack and the Korean peninsula is becoming an area where the chances of a nuclear war are the highest in the world,” the commentary said.
The North’s continued defiance presents a new diplomatic headache for US President Barack Obama as he prepares for talks with his South Korean counterpart on the North’s missile and nuclear programmes on Tuesday.
Meanwhile, calls to the US military command in Seoul were not answered on Sunday.
Also on Saturday, North Korea’s Foreign Ministry had on Friday threatened war on any country that dared to stop its ships on the high seas under the new sanctions approved by the UNSC as punishment for the North’s latest nuclear test.
Meanwhile, North Korean leader Kim Jong-Il has heaped praise on the military as his country defies the United Nations sanctions by vowing to increase its nuclear arsenal, state media said on Sunday.
Kim praised the 7th Infantry Division’s “militant training spirit and set forth the tasks for increasing its combat ability in every way,” the communist state’s official news agency reported. It did not say when the visit was made.
US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said Washington would do all it could to prevent continued proliferation by the North.
Provocative actions
“The North Koreans’ continuing provocative actions are deeply regrettable,” she told reporters on Saturday during a visit to Canada. The N Koreans, Clinton said, “have now been denounced by everyone. They have become further isolated. And it is not in the interests of the people of N Korea for that kind of isolation to continue.”