North Korea authorises nuclear attack on U.S.

The move comes after weeks of belligerent rhetoric from the North Korea.

After weeks of warlike rhetoric, North Korea warned Thursday that its military has been cleared to attack the United States using “smaller, lighter and diversified” nuclear weapons.

North Korea’s military statement said its troops had been authorized to counter U.S. “aggression” with “powerful practical military counteractions,” including nuclear weapons.

It said the “merciless operation of its revolutionary armed forces in this regard has been finally examined and ratified”.

“We formally inform the White House and Pentagon that the ever-escalating U.S. hostile policy toward the DPRK and its reckless nuclear threat will be smashed by the strong will of all the united service personnel and people and cutting-edge smaller, lighter and diversified nuclear strike means,” an unnamed spokesman from the General Bureau of the Korean People’s Army said in a statement carried by state media. “The U.S. had better ponder over the prevailing grave situation.”

The U.S. said it was deploying more missile defense system in preparedness of any eventuality although not many believe North Korea can carry out its threat.

Experts on nuclear weapons believe the country remains years away having the ability to launch nuclear-tipped missiles. However, the secretive country’s full nuclear capabilities are not fully known.

For weeks, North Korea has issued series of threats of war against the U.S and its ally in the region, South Korea.

On Wednesday, North Korea barred South Korean workers from having access to a shared industrial facility, raising tensions between the two sides to a new height. South Korea warned that it may consider all options including military force to free its workers from the Kaesong industrial complex in North Korea, the defence chief said on Wednesday. South Korean Defence Minister, Kim Kwan Jin, told legislators from the ruling Saenuri Party that using the military to free hundreds of workers at the jointly run industrial area was a possibility in the worst-case scenario, South Korea’s Yonhap News agency reported.

For a second day Thursday, North Korean border authorities denied entry to South. A North Korean government-run committee threatened to completely shut down the facility.

North Korea had earlier announced on Tuesday that it would restart a plutonium reactor it had shut down in 2007. A U.S. research institute said Wednesday that satellite imagery shows that construction needed for the restart has already begun.

U.S. Defense Secretary, Chuck Hagel, said Washington is doing all it can to resolve the situation.

“Some of the actions they’ve taken over the last few weeks present a real and clear danger and threat to the interests, certainly of our allies, starting with South Korea and Japan, and also the threats that the North Koreans have leveled directly at the United States regarding our base in Guam, threatened Hawaii, threatened the West Coast of the United States,” Mr. Hagel said on Wednesday.

South Korea’s Defense Ministry said its military is ready to deal with any provocation by North Korea.

“I can say we have no problem in crisis management,” deputy ministry spokesman, Wee Yong-sub, told reporters.




-- Premium Times