North Korea’s military has threatened to take “physical action” after the United States and South Korea announced that they would deploy a sophisticated missile defence system on the Korean peninsula.
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The test launch comes a day after the United States and South Korea joined forces to deploy the Terminal High-Altitude Area Defense (THAAD) system to counter North Korean missiles.
The decision to deploy THAAD is the latest move to squeeze the increasingly isolated North Korea, but China worries the system’s radar will be able to track its military capabilities.
THAAD can shoot down short, medium and intermediate ballistic missiles at incredible speed and altitude, and has been used by the USA for years to protect its military units. The United States has been using the same type of missile defense system for several years in order to guard military units from missile attacks.
North Korea warned of the “unwavering will of our army to deal a ruthless retaliatory strike” if the USA and South Korea’s joint Thaad system is used.
In the midst of an array of rhetoric which is becoming increasingly threatening and violent, North Korea also test-fired a submarine-based ballistic missile.
All matters related to the United States, including the handling of USA citizens detained by Pyongyang, will be conducted under its “wartime law”, the North’s official KCNA news agency said.
The battery in Guam is equipped with an AN/TPY-2 radar with a range of 600 km, but there is another mode using the same hardware that has a reach of some 1,800 km, and this is what China and Russian Federation are anxious about.
The two nations are speeding up efforts to place the anti-ballistic missile shield to counter North Korea’s worsening nuclear and missile threats, according to the report.
The US is a close ally of South Korea, maintaining 28,500 troops in South Korea, a legacy of the 1950-53 Korean war.
Separately, North Korea said this week it is severing a back-channel communication link with the US conducted through its mission to the United Nations in NY.
North Korea says it is closing one of its last lines of communication with the United States.
In response, the North cautioned that it would cut off even indirect diplomatic contact with the USA and handle its current American prisoners – a college student and a man in his 60s – under the potentially tougher guidelines of martial law. It is allegedly the first time U.S. government imposes sanctions personally addressed to President Kim.
“Human rights abuses in [North Korea] are among the worst in the world”.
The South Korean government’s recent decision to deploy a U.S. missile defence has triggered a controversial debate among politicians. The first stage of those practical sanctions is, apparently, shutting down the NY communication resource.
“I’m certain the worldwide community knows full well that we have no intention whatsoever to target any other country or threaten them”, Park said at a meeting with her senior advisers, according to the Blue House. “The U.S.is whole to blame for the ensuing unpleasant things happening in the bilateral times”, wrote KCNA.
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North Korea this year has sentenced an American student, Otto Frederick Warmbier, to 15 years of hard labor after accusing him of removing a political banner from a hotel.
