While Pyongyang’s threat isn’t new, it comes as South Korea and the USA begin joint military exercises amid the defection of a senior North Korean diplomat and a US plan to place a defense missile system in South Korea.
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-South Korean drills. As The Two-Way has reported, North Korea warned of a “pre-emptive nuclear strike of justice” during military exercises in March.
The media outlet said the act has enraged the North Korean military and people, warning that “any rash military provocation will result in South Korea paying a high-price penalty”.
All military communications lines between Seoul and Pyongyang have been shut after North Korea’s nuclear detonation in January and its launch of long-range rocket in February which was seen as a disguised test of ballistic missile technology.
The two-week annual Ulchi Freedom exercise is largely computer-simulated but still involves 50,000 Korean and 30,000 USA soldiers.
The source also added that the South Korean government is on guard against different potential aggressions such as the kidnapping of South Korean diplomats and citizens in foreign countries and assassination of well-known anti-North Korean civic group leaders.
“It’s highly likely that North Korea will make various attempts to prevent further defections and unrest among its people”.
Holding placards reading “Stop war exercise”, the protesters gathered near the United States embassy in the South Korean capital, Seoul, on Monday. “And last week, South Korean officials announced North Korea’s deputy ambassador to the United Kingdom has defected to South Korea”.
Starting today, Seoul and Washington will begin their annual joint Ulchi Freedom Guardian (UFG) exercise involving tens of thousands of troops.
The two-week drill is one of a number of annual joint exercises viewed by Pyongyang as provocative rehearsals for invasion.
KCNA didn’t identify Thae by name, but said North Korea had ordered the “fugitive” who had worked at the embassy in Britain to return to the North in June to be investigated for a series of crimes, including embezzling government funds, leaking state secrets and sexually assaulting a minor.
“It is regrettable that North Korea threatens to conduct a pre-emptive nuclear attack on the South”, Jeong Joon-hee, ministry spokesman, told Yonhap news agency.
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Thae’s move followed the defection in April of 13 staff from a North Korean restaurant in China.
