SEOUL/UNITED NATIONS: North Korea threatened the US yesterday with a pre-emptive nuclear strike, raising the level of rhetoric just before the UN Security Council approved new sanctions against the reclusive country.
US Ambassador to the UN Susan Rice said North Korea’s threats would achieve nothing and would further isolate it.
China’s UN Ambassador Li Baodong said Beijing wanted to see “full implementation” of the new council resolution that tightens financial restrictions on Pyongyang and cracks down on its attempts to ship and receive banned cargo.
North Korea has accused the US of using military drills in South Korea as a launch pad for a nuclear war and scrapped the armistice with Washington that ended hostilities in the 1950-53 Korean War. North Korea, which has one major ally, neighbouring China, threatens the US and its “puppet,” South Korea, on an almost daily basis.
“Since the US is about to ignite a nuclear war, we will be exercising our right to preemptive nuclear attack against the headquarters of the aggressor in order to protect our supreme interest,” the North’s foreign ministry said in a statement carried by the official KCNA news agency.
North Korea conducted a third nuclear test on February 12, in defiance of UN resolutions, and declared it had achieved progress in securing a functioning atomic arsenal. It is believed that the North does not have the capacity for a nuclear strike against the US mainland.
With tensions high on the Korean peninsula, the council voted to expand its sanctions, agreed after three weeks of negotiations between the US and China, which has a history of resisting tough measures against its ally.
South Korea and the US, which are conducting annual military drills until the end of April, are watching the North’s activities for signs they might turn from an exercise to an actual attack, an official said in Seoul.
“It hasn’t been frequent that the North conducted military exercises at the state level,” defence ministry spokesman Kim Min-seok said. Agencies
