The Telegraph:
North Korea has threatened to carry out a “pre-emptive strike” against the Blue House, the official residence of the South Korean president, and US military bases in the Asia-Pacific region.
“All our strategic and tactical means of striking will be mobilised to carry out pre-emptive, just operations”, the Supreme Command of the Korean People’s Army said in a statement.
Hinting that it is ready to utilise its arsenal of ballistic missiles, Pyongyang’s military said it will act if US and South Korean troops scheduled to take place in joint military drills in the South from early March “make the slightest move” towards a first strike against the regime of Kim Jong-un.
“The primary targets of the strikes will be the Cheong Wa Dae [the Blue House] and the reactionary ruling agencies, which are dens of plotters of confrontation”, the North warned.
Park Geun-hye, the South Korean president, was the target of more personal attacks on Sunday, with the Rodong Sinmun state-run newspaper describing her as a “crazy old bitch”.
The full-page article also described Mrs Park as a “murderous devil”, a “senile old woman” and an “invalid, morally depraved human being”.
North Korea routinely accuses South Korea and the US of using the annual Key Resolve and Foal Eagle manoeuvres as a prelude to an attempt to topple the regime, but rarely have its threats been so vitriolic.
Describing the exercises as “the height of hostile acts”, the statement, carried by the KCNA news agency, added that the North’s military is “ready to immediately and mercilessly punish, without the slightest leniency, tolerance or patience, anyone provoking the dignified supreme headquarters even a little bit”.
Advances in the regime’s long-range weapons systems mean it is also able to target US forces further afield, it said.
Pyongyang is ready to use its “powerful, cutting-edge means of striking the US as we please, any time, anywhere, and which no country in the world has ever had”.
In January, North Korea carried out a fourth underground nuclear test, claiming that the device was a hydrogen bomb. Earlier in February, the Mr Kim ignored international pressure and went ahead with a rocket launch that analysts say was a disguised test of a long-range ballistic missile.
