The Korea Times:
North Korea threatened to kill President Park Geun-hye, Wednesday, warning that its military was ready to turn Cheong Wa Dae into a “sea of fire” in retaliation for joint military exercises being conducted by South Korea and the U.S.
The threat is the latest in a series of bellicose rhetoric against Seoul and Washington over the past weeks.
They appear to be aimed at urging its people to show allegiance to its leader and solidifying Kim Jong-un’s dictatorship internally, observers said. However, military officials and analysts here say that the North won’t be able to take military action while South Korean and U.S. troops are conducting drills.
“The powerful large-caliber multiple rocket launching systems of the invincible Korean People’s Army (KPA) artillery units are highly alerted to scorch the Cheong Wa Dae in a jiffy. Once their buttons are pushed, it is bound to be reduced to a sea in flames and ashes,” said the Committee for the Peaceful Reunification of Korea (CPRK) in a statement, carried by the Korean Central News Agency (KCNA).
“What North Korea warns is not hot air. It will be clearly proved by the miserable end the U.S. and the Park group will meet while going reckless.”
The North’s latest saber-rattling came after Seoul and Washington on Monday conducted exercises involving precision attacks targeting Pyongyang’s leadership in the event of a war on the Korean Peninsula.
Criticizing the drill, the CPRK said, “This is a thrice-cursed provocation to the dignity of the supreme leadership of North Korea and intolerable hideous confrontation action.”
After being slapped with new sanctions by the United Nations Security Council (UNSC), March 2, the repressive state started military provocations such as launching short- and mid-range ballistic missiles in breach of UNSC sanctions.
In addition, the statement came as the defense ministry expects the Kim Jong-un regime to deploy a new 300-millimeter multiple launch rocket system in the near future, estimated to put U.S military bases in Pyeongtaek and Osan, Gyeonggi Province and South Korea’s Gyeryongdae military headquarters in South Chungcheong Province within range.
“We had already declared that all the dens of the enemy in South Korea, including Cheong Wa Dae are the primary targets of the ultra-precision strike means of the Strategic Force of the KPA ready to go into action,” the CPRK said.
In response to the North’s latest threat, the South Korean government condemned its hostile Northern neighbor for warning of attacks on President Park, urging the country to stop the rhetoric.
“We will never condone the North’s threats against President Park and our people,” unification ministry spokesman Jeong Joon-hee said in a briefing. “North Korea should immediately end its vulgar and despicable acts.”
He added that the South Korean military will sternly and relentlessly respond to any additional provocations by the North.
Chang Yong-seok, a senior fellow at the Institute for Peace and Unification affiliated with Seoul National University, said, “The North had no choice but to protest the joint exercise against its leadership, but the statement is more like strengthening Kim’s grip on power rather than taking military action against the South.”
