North Korea said Saturday it will seek retaliation against the latest joint military drill conducted by Seoul and Washington, adding it is “waiting for the moment to punish the aggressors”.
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The U.S. Defence Department said this week it had seen no evidence that North Korea had succeeded in miniaturizing a warhead.
As the isolated state flexes it own military muscle, under the orders of leader Kim Jong Un, it has denounced the landing drill as an enemy attempt to “advance into Pyongyang” and warned of what it calls “an ultra-precision blitzkrieg strike” in return.
North Korea’s statement called the annual amphibious landing drill, known as Ssangyong, the “climax” of its enemies’ new joint wartime operational strategy dubbed Operation Plan (OPLAN) 5015, which reportedly includes a contingency for preemptive strikes against the North’s leadership and its key facilities.
United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon makes comments to the media on the situation in North Korea at the United Nations headquarters in New York City on January 6. But he agreed that the military exercises would serve as a restraint to North Korea.
The North Korean navy has been hunting for the missing vessel for days, watched by U.S. satellites, aircraft and ships, CNN reports.
USA officials said the drill is meant to ensure readiness for a range of operations, including humanitarian work as well as military offensives.
In 2010, the South Korean corvette Cheonan was found by an official investigation to have been torpedoed by a North Korean submarine near their sea border.
“The report did not say when the test took place but it was likely referring to North Korea’s launch of two short-range missiles on Thursday that flew 500 km (300 miles) and splashed into the sea”.
North Korean leader Kim Jong Un ordered more nuclear tests after watching a ballistic missile launch Friday, the state news agency reported.
In August past year, Seoul said 70 per cent of the North’s total submarine fleet – or around 50 vessels – had left their bases and disappeared from South’s military radar, sparking alarm.
North Korea didn’t say what exactly it would do with the South Korean assets.
Signing a peace treaty, which would replace the armistice that halted the 1950-53 Korean War, has been one of Pyongyang’s long-running goals, but the US and South Korea have demanded the North abandon its nuclear program first.
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“The speculation is that it sank”, an unidentified US official told the US Naval Institute’s news website.
