South Korean news agency Yonhap quoted officials as saying Tuesday that that the military drill – involving police, government officials and private experts – was conducted at a football stadium some 302 kilometers (188 miles) south of Seoul.
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Korean War veterans react as they shout slogans to North Korean leader Kim Jong-un during a parade to mark the 60th anniversary of the signing of a truce in the 1950-1953 Korean War at Kim Il-sung Square, in Pyongyang July 27, 2013.
“It is regrettable that North Korea threatens to conduct a pre-emptive nuclear attack on the South”, Jeong Joon-hee, a spokesman for the Ministry of Unification, said. About 50,000 South Korean soldiers and some 25,000 U.S. troops are joining in the Ulchi Freedom Guardian exercise, which runs until September the second.
“The nuclear warmongers should bear in mind that if they show the slightest sign of aggression on the inviolable land, seas and air where the sovereignty of the DPRK is exercised, it would turn the stronghold of provocation into a heap of ashes through Korean-style preemptive nuclear strike”, the General Staff of the Korean People’s Army (KPA) stated.
The sources say officials with South Korea’s spy agency, the National Intelligence Service, told a parliamentary oversight committee in a closed door session that Pyongyang issued the return order for all diplomats’ children 25 years old and older, as part of an apparent effort to stop potential defections.
The defections signal a “serious fracture” within the North Korea’s regime, escalating the prospects of provocation as Kim tries to maintain control, Park said. North Korea views the drills as a practice run for an invasion of its territory.
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.
This year’s 12-day long drills include about 25,000 US troops and 50,000 South Korean troops.
The incident led South Korea to blast propaganda on loudspeakers across the border into the North.
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It is not the first time North Korea has threatened a preemptive nuclear strike against South Korea and the U.S. The last threat the North made came during military exercises in March.
