N. Korea Threatens 'Sacred War' with Nukes
Reuters reports:
North Korea warned on Thursday of a "sacred war" against the South using its nuclear deterrent as South Korean President Lee Myung-bak vowed a "merciless counterattack" if southern territory is attacked again.
Both sides raised the rhetoric on a day South Korea launched major land and sea military exercises, prompting North Korea, which has threatened to reduce the South to ashes on many occasions, to denounce its richer neighbour as a warmonger.
"To counter the enemy's intentional drive to push the situation to the brink of war, our revolutionary forces are making preparations to begin a sacred war at any moment necessary based on nuclear deterrent," North Korea's KCNA news agency quoted Minister of Armed Forces Kim Yong-chun telling a rally.
North Korea has wielded the threat of its nuclear deterrent before, despite analysts saying it has no way to launch a nuclear device.
Tension reached a peak last month when North Korea shelled a southern island, Yeonpyeong, killing four people, in response to the South's live-fire drill in what the North said were its waters.
The North has since made a conciliatory gesture, offering to re-admit U.N. nuclear inspectors worried about its nuclear weapons programme.
"We've seen North Korea flip-flop from threatening the South with nuclear war before the military exercises, then a day later ignore that the exercises took place, launch a peace initiative, and now, just days later, once again threaten with nuclear war," said Mark Hibbs of the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace.
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