The North’s “first-strike” units are ready to mount retaliatory attacks on South Korean and USA forces involved in the drills, according to the statement, carried by Pyongyang’s state media.
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On Monday, North Korea’s Red Cross sent a letter to its South Korean counterpart asking for the women to be sent back, saying they had been kidnapped by the South, according to Pyongyang’s Korean Central News Agency.
Fox News points out that the Ulchi Freedom Guardian Drills, a 12-day exercise that began on Monday, “are largely computer-simulated war games”, involving 25,000 USA troops and 50,000 South Koreans.
The drill, called Ulchi Freedom Guardian, “is created to enhance alliance readiness, protect the region and maintain stability on the Korean peninsula”, the Republic of Korea and United States Combined Forces Command said in a statement Sunday. The North views these annual military exercises as preparations for an invasion.
A statement released by the Combined Forces Command stressed that the exercises are defensive in nature. This year’s UFG also comes in the wake of Seoul’s announcement of the defection of a high-ranking North Korean official. North Korea views the drills as a practice run for an invasion of its territory.
North Korea will “turn the stronghold of provocation into a heap of ashes through Korean-style pre-emptive nuclear strike” if the US and South Korea “show the slightest sign of aggression” during the drill, a spokesman for North Korea’s military was quoted as saying by the country’s state media. This is the highest-level official to defect in two decades, reports The New York Times.
Many analysts said Thae’s defection was an embarrassment to the North Korean government of leader Kim Jong Un, but would not weaken the unity of the country’s elite class.
“Considering [North Korean leader] Kim Jong-Un’s character, it is very risky”, said the unidentified official.
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The North Korea Information Center holds a massive collection of more than 100,000 items, including newspapers, books, journals, films and the complete works of the ruling Kim family dynasty that has governed the communist country since it was founded in 1948. “It is highly likely that North Korea will make various attempts to prevent further defections and unrest among its people”. The North denounced Thae as “human scum” and accused him of a number of criminal acts, including child molestation.
