The third defense stage, dubbed the Korea Massive Punishment and Retaliation, will target the regime’s leader and military headquarters by firing off numerous precision guided missiles as well as deploying Special Forces units to the North. Seoul and Washington are also considering stationing a US strategic weaponry near the Korean peninsula at all times.
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Power described it as brazen defiance of the global community.
North Korea has been hit by five sets of United Nations sanctions since it first tested a nuclear device in 2006.
In the wake of its nuclear warhead test, the worldwide community has voiced its strong condemnation over the development.
The exercise will focus on training the allies’ naval forces on joint precision attacks on North Korea’s key military facilities and the regime’s leadership that would be launched in the event of a war with Pyongyang.
It did not elaborate on what activities had been detected at the test site.
“Every Pyongyang district, particularly where the North Korean leadership is possibly hidden, will be completely destroyed by ballistic missiles and high-explosive shells as soon as the North shows any signs of using a nuclear weapon”, a source in the South Korean military told the Yonhap news agency.
Foreign Minister Ri Yong Ho’s visit, if confirmed, comes amid a push by the United States for new sanctions against the secretive North after its fifth nuclear test on Friday.
A USA special envoy for the isolated state, Sung Kim, will travel to Seoul on Monday.
In a statement, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs said it “condemns in the strongest possible terms the latest nuclear test that was carried today by the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea”.
Yonhap said the US military will try again Tuesday to fly two B-1 bombers, capable of carrying 24 atomic weapons, over its main air base near Seoul. The U.S. military said some aircraft will be deployed Tuesday but declined to disclose what type or how many planes.
South Korea’s defence ministry said there was no change in its policy barring nuclear weapons.
Following the nuclear test by North Korea, the U.N. Security Council convened an emergency meeting Friday, where it vowed to promptly work on “appropriate measures” in response to the isolated country’s actions, including a reference to a possible sanctions resolution.
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The 15 council members will meet at 3 pm for urgent consultations, at the request of the United States and Japan, said the New Zealand mission. The Security Council is due to meet Friday.
