President Park Geun-Hye’s warning came as North Korea’s rubber-stamp parliament was set to hold its
annual session and a day after ruling party leaders vowed to enshrine Pyongyang’s right to nuclear weapons in law.
"The DPRK possession of nuclear weapons should be
fixed by law and the nuclear armed forces should be expanded and beefed
up qualitatively and quantitatively," a KCNA report on the meeting said.
"The People's Army should perfect the war method and operation in the direction of raising the pivotal role of the nuclear armed forces in all aspects concerning war deterrence and war strategy."
The North is angry at UN sanctions following its nuclear test in February.
"The People's Army should perfect the war method and operation in the direction of raising the pivotal role of the nuclear armed forces in all aspects concerning war deterrence and war strategy."
The North is angry at UN sanctions following its nuclear test in February.
It is also unhappy with joint US-South Korea annual military
drills. But the US says there is no sign of North Korean actions to
back up the rhetoric.
In the last few days North Korea has issued multiple warnings of attacks on US and South Korean targets to which the US has responded with an apparent show of military hardware. The US flew F-22 planes from Japan to South Korea's Osan Air base on Sunday, as part of ongoing joint military exercises with Seoul, officials said.
Meanwhile, North Korea has announced it has appointed a new premier, Pak Pong-ju. He was sacked from the same post in 2007.
In a meeting with senior military officials and defense minister Kim Kwan-Jin, Park said she took the near daily stream of bellicose threats emanating from the North over the past month very seriously.
In the last few days North Korea has issued multiple warnings of attacks on US and South Korean targets to which the US has responded with an apparent show of military hardware. The US flew F-22 planes from Japan to South Korea's Osan Air base on Sunday, as part of ongoing joint military exercises with Seoul, officials said.
Meanwhile, North Korea has announced it has appointed a new premier, Pak Pong-ju. He was sacked from the same post in 2007.
In a meeting with senior military officials and defense minister Kim Kwan-Jin, Park said she took the near daily stream of bellicose threats emanating from the North over the past month very seriously.
Park, a conservative who had advocated cautious engagement with the North during her election campaign, has been compelled to take a more hardline posture after assuming office in February.
The defense minister made it clear that the South would carry out preemptive strikes against the North’s nuclear and missile facilities in the event of hostilities breaking out.
“We will establish a so called active deterrence aimed at neutralizing the North’s nuclear and missile threats quickly,” Kim said.
The Korean peninsula has been caught in a cycle of escalating tensions since the North’s long-range rocket launch in December, which its critics condemned as a ballistic missile test. UN sanctions were followed by a nuclear test in February.For now, cool heads prevail in Seoul's presidential Blue House. Park, a conservative who took office less than two months ago, has spoken of engagement with the North a departure from the hardline stance of her predecessor, Lee Myung-bak, who cut free-flowing aid and took inter-Korean relations to their lowest point in years.
Park reportedly wants to begin the process by offering humanitarian aid, followed by huge investment in North Korea's social and economic infrastructure, but only if Pyongyang abandons its nuclear weapons programme in return.
No comments:
Post a Comment