N Korea readies missiles after US flights
North Korean leader Kim Jong-un signed off on the order at a midnight meeting of top generals and “judged the time has come to settle accounts with the US imperialists in view of the prevailing situation”, the official KCNA news agency said.
KCNA said North Korea and the US could only settle their differences by “physical means”. The North has an arsenal of Soviet-era short- range Scud missiles that can hit South Korea, but its longer-range Nodong and Musudan missiles, which could in theory hit US Pacific bases, are untested.
Photos appeared in the state-run Rodong newspaper which were reported to have been taken at the “emergency meeting”, showing Kim with large- scale maps and diagrams in the background.
The charts were allegedly marked ‘US mainland strike plan’ showing missile trajectories pointing to Hawaii, Washington DC, Los Angeles, and Austin, Texas.
China, the North’s sole major ally, repeated its calls for restraint on the Korean peninsula at a regular foreign ministry briefing and made no criticism of the US flights.
“We hope that relevant parties will work together in pushing for a turnaround of the tense situation,” ministry spokesman Hong Lei told reporters.
Tension has been high since North Korea carried out a third nuclear weapons test in February in breach of UN sanctions and despite warnings from China for it not to do so.
Russia’s foreign minister implicitly criticised the US bomber flights.
“We are concerned that alongside the adequate, collective reaction of the UN Security Council, unilateral action is being taken around North Korea that is increasing military activity,” foreign minister Sergei Lavrov said.
“The situation could simply get out of control, it is slipping toward the spiral of a vicious cycle,” Lavrov told reporters in Moscow when asked about the situation.
He called for efforts to get stalled six-party talks on North Korea going again. The talks have involved the two Koreas, the US, Russia, China, and Japan.
On Thursday, the US flew two radar-evading B-2 Spirit bombers on practice runs over South Korea, responding to a series of North Korean threats.
They flew from the US and back in what appeared to be the first exercise of its kind, designed to show America’s ability to conduct long-range, precision strikes “quickly and at will”, the US military said.
The news of Kim’s response was unusually swift.
“He finally signed the plan on technical preparations of strategic rockets of the Korean People’s Army, ordering them to be on standby for fire so that they may strike any time the US mainland, its military bases in the operational theatres in the Pacific, including Hawaii and Guam, and those in South Korea,” said KCNA.
South Korea’s Yonhap news agency reported there had been additional troop and vehicle movements at the North’s mid- and long-range missile sites, indicating they may be ready to fire.
It was impossible to verify the report which did not specify a time frame. South Korea’s Defence Ministry said it was watching shorter- range Scud missile sites closely as well as Nodong and Musudan missile batteries.
The North has launched a daily barrage of threats since early this month when the US and the South, allies in the 1950-53 Korean War, began regular military drills.
The South and the US have said the drills are purely defensive and that no incident has taken place in the decades they have been conducted in various forms.
The US also flew B-52 bombers over South Korea earlier this week.
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