North Korea readying rockets to aim at U.S. targets, state media says
March 29, 2013 -- Updated 0139 GMT (0939 HKT)
North Korea puts rockets on standby
STORY HIGHLIGHTS
- Kim Jong Un meets with military after U.S. stealth bombers fly in exercises
- North Korean media: Rockets should be ready to "mercilessly strike" the U.S.
- A Pentagon spokesman urges North Korea to "dial down the temperature"
- "No one wants there to be war on the Korean Peninsula," Pentagon spokesman says
In a meeting with
military leaders early Friday, Kim Jong Un "said he has judged the time
has come to settle accounts with the U.S. imperialists in view of the
prevailing situation," the state-run KCNA news agency reported.
"If they make a reckless
provocation with huge strategic forces, [we] should mercilessly strike
the U.S. mainland, their stronghold, their military bases in the
operational theaters in the Pacific, including Hawaii and Guam, and
those in South Korea," KCNA reported.
Kim's regime has
unleashed a torrent of threats in the past few weeks, and U.S. officials
have said they're concerned about the recent rhetoric.
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"North Korea is not a
paper tiger, so it wouldn't be smart to dismiss its provocative behavior
as pure bluster," a U.S. official said Wednesday.
But Pentagon spokesman
George Little said Thursday that it was important to remain calm and
urged North Korea to "dial the temperature down."
"No one wants there to be war on the Korean Peninsula, let me make that very clear," he told CNN's "Erin Burnett Outfront."
Behind North Korea's heated words about missile strikes, one analyst said, there might not be much mettle.
"The fact is that
despite the bombast, and unless there has been a miraculous turnaround
among North Korea's strategic forces, there is little to no chance that
it could successfully land a missile on Guam, Hawaii or anywhere else
outside the Korean Peninsula that U.S. forces may be stationed," James
Hardy, Asia-Pacific editor of IHS Jane's Defense Weekly, wrote in an opinion column published Thursday on CNN.com.
North Korea's latest threat Friday morning came after the United States said Thursday that it flew stealth bombers over South Korea in annual military exercises.
The mission by the B-2
Spirit bombers, which can carry conventional and nuclear weapons,
"demonstrates the United States' ability to conduct long-range,
precision strikes quickly and at will," a statement from U.S. Forces
Korea said.
The North Korean state
news agency described the mission as "an ultimatum that they (the United
States) will ignite a nuclear war at any cost on the Korean Peninsula."
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The North has repeatedly claimed that the exercises are tantamount to threats of nuclear war against it.
But the U.S. military stressed that the bombers flew in exercises to preserve peace in the region.
"The United States is
steadfast in its alliance commitment to the defense of the Republic of
Korea, to deterring aggression, and to ensuring peace and stability in
the region," the statement from U.S. Forces Korea said, using South
Korea's official name. "The B-2 bomber is an important element of
America's enduring and robust extended deterrence capability in the
Asia-Pacific region."
The disclosure of the B-2 flights comes a day after North Korea said it was cutting a key military hotline with South Korea, provoking fresh expressions of concern from U.S. officials about Pyongyang's recent rhetoric.
Tensions escalated on
the Korean Peninsula after the North carried out a long-range rocket
launch in December and an underground nuclear test last month, prompting
the U.N. Security Council to step up sanctions on the secretive regime.
Pyongyang has expressed
fury over the sanctions and the annual U.S.-South Korean military
exercises, due to continue until the end of April.
Sharp increases in
tensions on the Korean Peninsula have taken place during the drills in
previous years. The last time the North cut off military communications
with the South was during similar exercises in March 2009.
North Korea has gone through cycles of "provocative behavior" for decades, Little said Thursday.
"And we have to deal
with them. We have to be sober, calm, cool, collected about these
periods. That's what we're doing right now," he said. "And we are
assuring our South Korean allies day to day that we stand with them in
the face of these provocations."
The recent
saber-rattling from Pyongyang has included threats of pre-emptive
nuclear strikes against the United States and South Korea, as well as
the declaration that the armistice that stopped the Korean War in 1953
is null and void.
On Tuesday, the North said it planned to place military units tasked with targeting U.S. bases under combat-ready status.
Most observers say North
Korea is still years away from having the technology to deliver a
nuclear warhead on a missile, but it does have plenty of conventional
military firepower, including medium-range ballistic missiles that can
carry high explosives for hundreds of miles.
Little said Thursday that the United States was keeping a close eye on North Korea's missile capabilities.
"The important thing is
for us to stay out ahead of what we think the North Korean threat is,
especially from their missile program," he said. "They've been testing
more missiles, and they've been growing their capabilities and we have
to stay out ahead."
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