North Korea threatens attacks on US military bases

North Korea will turn US military bases in the region into a “sea of fire” if war breaks out on the Korean Peninsula, North Korean media has quoted a communist officer as saying today.

It was unclear why the North’s state-run news media highlighted the comment, which was made two days earlier by an individual military officer during a debate in Pyongyang, its capital.

North Korea has vowed to fight off what it calls a US plan to invade, while the United States and its allies are struggling to end the North’s nuclear weapons programmes through multinational disarmament talks.

“If the US imperialists ignite flames of war, we will first of all strike all bases of US imperialist aggressors and turn them into a sea of fire,” North Korea’s Central Radio quoted officer Hur Ryong as saying.

Hur was also quoted as saying that the North Korean military will “thoroughly incinerate the aggressor elements that collude with the US imperialists”, in an apparent reference to South Korea and Japan, both of which host US military bases.

The remarks were reported hours after South Korea released a new defense policy paper today that said the United States would dispatch 690,000 troops and 2,000 warplanes if war breaks out on the divided Korean Peninsula.