North Korea says prepared to counter US military moves with 'most overwhelming nuclear force'
North Korea says it is prepared to counter provocative military moves by the United States with the "most overwhelming nuclear force."
In a statement on Thursday, the North Korean Foreign Ministry also warned that the expansion of the US combined military exercises with South Korea was pushing tensions to an "extreme red line."
"The military and political situation on the Korean Peninsula and in the region has reached an extreme red-line due to the reckless military confrontational maneuvers and hostile acts of the US and its vassal forces," the statement read, according to the Korean Central News Agency (KCNA).
The strongly-worded statement came in response to comments by the by US Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin, who said on Tuesday in the South Korean capital of Seoul that Washington would boost its deployment of advanced military assets to the Korean Peninsula. Austin said that such an increase in military presence would include warplanes and aircraft carriers, as the US strengthens joint training and operational planning with the South.
The North Korean Foreign Ministry charged Washington with "working hard to 'demonize' the DPRK, spreading again all sorts of rumors," using an abbreviation for North Korea's official name, the Democratic People's Republic of Korea.
The Ministry also blamed the US and its allies for "intensifying the full-scale offensive for putting pressure on the DPRK in all aspects including 'human rights,' sanctions and military affairs."
North Korea "will strongly control the present and future potential challenges with the most overwhelming nuclear force," Pyongyang warned, stressing that it "will take the toughest reaction to any military attempt of the US on the principle of 'nuke for nuke and an all-out confrontation for an all-out confrontation.'"
The North also warned that military drills by the US and its regional allies would turn the Korean Peninsula into a "huge war arsenal and a more critical war zone."
However, a statement by the White House rejected that joint military drills by the US and its allies in and around the Korean Peninsula would constitute a provocation.
Inter-Korean relations have drastically deteriorated since South Korea's President Yoon Suk-yeol took office in May last year and openly invited the US to take part in joint military drills, including joint nuclear exercises, with South Korea.
ME
