SEOUL — North Korea warned Saturday that it will respond with "powerful nuclear deterrence" to joint U.S. and South Korean military exercises poised to begin this weekend, saying the drills amount to a provocation that cannot be ignored.
North Korea routinely threatens war when South Korea and the U.S. hold joint military drills, which Pyongyang sees as a rehearsal for an attack on the North. The latest threat comes amid increased tensions on the peninsula over the deadly sinking of a South Korean warship that Seoul and Washington blame on Pyongyang.
The allies' defense chiefs announced earlier in the week they would stage the drills to send a clear message to North Korea to stop its "aggressive" behavior. Forty-six South Korean sailors were killed in the March sinking of the Cheonan, considered the worst military attack on the South since the 1950-53 Korean War.
North Korea vehemently denies any involvement and says any punishment would trigger war.
On Saturday, North Korea's powerful National Defense Commission — headed by leader Kim Jong Il — backed that threat up by promising a "retaliatory sacred war" against South Korea and the U.S. for what it called a second "unpardonable" provocation after wrongly accusing the North in the Cheonan incident.
"The army and people of the (North) will legitimately counter with their powerful nuclear deterrence the largest-ever nuclear war exercises," the commission said in a statement carried by the country's official Korean Central News Agency.
A day earlier in Hanoi, a North Korean spokesman for the delegation attending a regional security conference warned the drills would draw a "physical response" from Pyongyang.
Hiya: Should there be a hole in the ground, where N. Korea used to be?
I spend 9 years in S. Korea. The training exercises have gone on for over 20+ years, and we have them twice a year. "team Spirit, and UFL". If we are traing to attack the North, we must really suck to need 20 years of practice?
We also can't just leave. president Carter tried that, and it almost started a war. So, what to do?
They have or will have Nukes. They are an animal, trapped in a corner. Their entire economy and goals have always been, "One Korea, under the N. Korean flag". This will NEVER change. So, they just keep using stalling tactics, and keep on building, or obtaining the items needed, to build Nukes. China is their friend.
What is N. Korea trying to do? The exact same thing they have tried to do since the War stopped, and they retreated back behind the border. Force the South into threating to attack them, giving them an EXCUSE, to attack first, claiming self defense. And, at the same time, Claiming this is a Cival War, and for everyone else to stay out of it. S. Korea has better weapons, but N> Korea has one of the largest Army in the world.
If you were president, what would you do, if anything?
