Pyongyang has ordered rocket units be put on standby to fire on US bases in the South Pacific. “The time has come to settle accounts with the US imperialists in view of the prevailing situation,” North Korean leader declared, according to state media.
It follows a US B-2 flyover of South Korea that saw dummy ammunition dropped as part of a joint military drill Thursday.
The North Korean leader and army marshal Kim Jong-un declared that “the revolutionary armed forces of the DPRK would react to the US nuclear blackmail with a merciless nuclear attack, and war of aggression with an all-out war of justice,” according to KCNA.
The decree placing the Strategic Rocket Force on standby was signed following an urgent meeting of the military command early Friday morning, according to North Korean media. The plan suggests that ballistic rockets would be permanently targeted at American military installations in the Pacific, including Hawaii and Guam, as well as those in South Korea.
In the case of another US “provocation” like the B2 flyover, a North Korean propaganda release says, the Korean People’s Army “should mercilessly strike the US mainland, their stronghold, their military bases in the operational theaters in the Pacific, including Hawaii and Guam, and those in south Korea.”
Earlier on Thursday US Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel denied that the United States’ war games in the Korean peninsula had aggravated the situation in the region.
Hagel said that “this new young leader” of North Korea had “ratcheted up the danger” with his actions and aggressive tone. “We have to take seriously every provocative, bellicose word and action that this new young leader has taken so far,” Hagel told a Pentagon news conference.