North Korea’s military was prepared to stop any U.S. moves, it said, with a closing warning to Washington.
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“North Korea’s nuclear test is a risky escalation and poses an unacceptable threat”, Gen. Vincent K. Brooks, U.S. Forces Korea commander, said in a statement Tuesday.
“The US imperialists keep letting their nuclear strategic bombers fly over south Korea [sic] in a bid to seek an opportunity of mounting a preemptive nuclear attack [against the North]”, the KCNA further said.
The United States and South Korea vowed Tuesday to push for the “strongest possible” resolution at the UN Security Council, including new sanctions and the removal of existing loopholes, to punish North Korea for its latest nuclear test.
The B-1B bombers out of Guam did an overflight near Seoul on Tuesday morning as a response to North Korea’s nuclear test.
South Korea hosts 28,000 United States troops as the two Koreas technically remain at war since the 1950-53 Korean War ended in an armistice instead of a peace treaty. While Beijing agreed to a new round of punitive sanctions after North Korea’s fourth nuclear test, it fears that Washington could use a political crisis in Pyongyang to oust the regime and unify the Korean Peninsula under the South Korean government, a formal United States ally. “A lot of North Korean military commanders find USA bombers especially threatening, given the destruction here in Pyongyang during the Korean War, when much of the city was flattened”, Ripley said.
“Any sanction, provocation and pressure can not ruin our status as a nuclear state and evil political and military provocations will only result in a flood of reckless nuclear attacks that will bring a final destruction”, KCNA said.
“I want our government and military to stay fully ready to retaliate, determined to end North Korea’s regime once North Korea fires even one missile nuclear-armed missile toward our territory”, Park told a cabinet meeting.
Meanwhile, the South Korean military is on high alert but says it expects another Pyongyang nuclear test soon.
North Korea has refused the USA demand that it accept denuclearization as a condition for holding dialogue. But the nuclear test on Friday, the most powerful by the North to date, and its recent flurry of missile tests showed that despite years of sanctions, the country was advancing toward its proclaimed goal of fitting its ballistic missiles with nuclear warheads.
“It’s a question of North Korean intentions and commitment”.
The Obama administration has shunned China’s attempts to forge a deal on North Korea’s nuclear programs via six-party talks involving the two Koreas, the US, China, Russia and Japan.
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North Korea is keenly aware of the United States presence on the peninsula and of what it considers the USA nuclear threat.
