North Korean media claim US pushing for all-out nuclear war

NORTH Korean media yesterday accused the US of pushing into full swing preparations for nuclear war against the communist state, and warned such a war could wreak havoc.

The North’s official Korea Central News Agency (KCNA) quoted the ruling communist party’s Rodong Sinmun as saying the US Department of Defence recently ordered huge US air force deployments in South Korea, Japan and around the Korean peninsula.

Besides, it added, the US Air Forces Command in South Korea put its units at “semi-war footing”.

“If the US imperialists ignite a war on the Korean peninsula, the war will turn into a nuclear war. As a consequence, Koreans in the North and South and people in Asia and the rest of the world will suffer horrifying nuclear disasters.”

The paper said nuclear weapon production factories in the US were developing and manufacturing weapons to destroy underground structures in the isolated country.

On Saturday, Pyongyang accused Washington of stepping up spy flights in preparation for war, while South Korea’s president vowed to work for a swift and peaceful end to the nuclear crisis on the peninsula.

“The DPRK [an acronym for North Korea’s official name] neither wants a war nor avoids it,” the KCNA said in a commentary on Saturday.