The Defence Ministry of North Korea has issued a warning that any use of force against the country will be “met with a preemptive and devastating response,” accusing the US and South Korea of preparing for “nuclear war.” Following a ballistic missile test by Pyongyang’s forces, the ministry released a statement.
The Japanese coast guard reports that the missile was fired off the east coast of North Korea on Sunday and plummeted into the ocean twenty minutes after it was launched.
The defence ministry accused the “US and South Korean military thugs” of stepping up plans for “nuclear war” shortly after the launch. The statement referenced a Friday meeting of the US-South Korean Nuclear Consultative Group in Washington, following which the White House declared that the US would use “the full range of US capabilities, including nuclear,” to defend South Korea from a north Korean attack.
The statement from the ministry also denounced the nuclear-powered submarine USS Missouri’s landing in South Korea on Sunday and called military exercises between US and South Korean forces in August “a blatant declaration of nuclear confrontation.”
North Korean forces are ready to “thoroughly neutralise the attempt by the United States and its followers to provoke nuclear war,” the ministry declared, adding that “we will never stand idly by and watch the provocative actions of the United States.”
“A preemptive and devastating response will be met with any attempt by hostile powers to use force against the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea,” the statement declared at the end.
Following Joe Biden’s inauguration, North Korea intensified its missile testing programme and has carried out more than 100 launches since the beginning of 2022, following a brief détente during the latter portion of previous US President Donald Trump’s term in office. While the White House has twice this year warned Pyongyang that a nuclear first strike by the north “is unacceptable and will result in the end of the (Kim Jong) Un regime,” the US has increased the scope and frequency of its military exercises with South Korea.
After successfully launching a spy satellite into orbit in November, North Korea declared a week later that it had obtained “detailed” photos of the White House, aircraft carriers, and US military outposts. According to spies in South Korea, the North is getting ready to do its first nuclear test since 2017 sometime in 2019.
