North Korea has issued almost daily reports in recent days on Kim’s instructions to fight South Korea and the United States as the two allies began large-scale military drills.
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In response to North’s statement, South Korea’s Joint Chiefs of Staff called for North Korea to stop its threats and “rash behaviour” and warned that a provocation from the North would result in the destruction of its highest leadership.
Pyongyang added it planned to respond to the drills with an “operation to liberate the whole of South Korea including Seoul” with an “ultra-precision blitzkrieg”.
The NIS also accused North Korea of having tried to hack into the smartphones of 300 foreign affairs, security and military officials in South Korea between late February and early this month.
The KCNA report on the test, which experts believe was referring to the launch of two short-range ballistic missiles into the nearby sea on Thursday, asserted that the tests were necessary for the advancement of North Korea’s nuclear program. The missiles flew about 500 km off the east coast city of Wonsan and were presumed to be part of the scud series developed by the Soviets.
“We do not recognise the nuclear status of the DPRK”, Wang told a news briefing via a translator, using the official acronym for North Korea. While the South protested, the country did not go into the specifics on how they plan to recover their resources. In January, North Korea conducted its fourth nuclear test, drawing global condemnation and earning the country new sanctions from the United Nations.
The government is maintaining full readiness to immediately respond to any provocations by North Korea.
Lavrov said deploying the system would be an overreaction.
A South Korean defense ministry spokesman told AFP Seoul was investigating the reports.
“The deployment of this USA missile system far exceeds the actual defence needs of the (Korean) peninsula. and will harm the strategic balance of power in the region, possibly leading to a new arms race”, said Wang.
DPRK stands for the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea.
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The KCNA reported that Kim underscored the need to further develop nuclear weapons in order to prepare “to make nuclear strikes at the enemies from anywhere on the ground, in the air, at sea and underwater”.
