The U.S. says the Korean People’s Army in North Korea was informed about the training exercises and their dates by the United Nations Command.
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North Korea’s National Defence Commission said the North Korean army and people would “realise the greatest desire of the Korean nation through a sacred war of justice for reunification”, in response to any attack by US and South Korean forces.
He explained to reporters Monday that the exercises are created to help USA and South Korean forces maintain their readiness for operations in defense of South Korea.
North Korea is said to have hacked the smartphones of key South Korean officials while staging cyber attacks on the computer networks of the South’s railway systems.
North Korea has threatened a pre-emptive nuclear strike as USA and South Korean forces began their largest joint exercises ever conducted.
Its response would include nuclear weapons and their use against the United States, the official Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) said in a statement on Monday.
The United States responded with a call for caution.
The two Koreas, China, Japan, the USA and Russian Federation for years have tried to tame tensions on the peninsula. After publishing an article last week citing “zoologists” stating that South Korean President Park Geun-hye is an “ugly female bat“, the Rodong Sinmun is now calling Park a “die-hard pro-American parrot”. North Korea has denied any involvement in the hacking.
North Korea has been at odds with the South since the end of the Korean War of the early 1950s.
Kim’s regime is particularly angry at his enemies this time and last week ordered his forces to use its nuclear weapons at any time, affirming they were needed after the “gangster-like” sanctions imposed on his government.
Onlookers might have been forgiven for thinking the 1950-53 Korean War was on the verge of reigniting, as the South’s military revealed that they were preparing to strike the North’s leadership and specific targets in case of a conflict.
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North Korean leader Kim Jong Un is reportedly still trying to consolidate power more than four years after taking over following the death of his father and cannot be seen as showing any weakness with the first congress by the ruling Workers’ Party in three decades looming in April. “If the North provokes us during this exercise, the USA and our troops will retaliate with an attack ten-fold stronger”.
