North Korea threatens South’s presidency over drills
On Wednesday, South Korea mobilized aircraft, rocket launchers, artillery guns and naval boats for the first anniversary of the artillery attack on a military garrison and fishing community on Yeonpyeong Island in the Yellow Sea. Two marines and two construction workers were killed in the 2010 attack, the first on a civilian area since the 1950-53 Korean War.
Pyongyang accuses Seoul of provoking last year's attack, saying it struck after warning the South not to hold live-fire drills in the disputed waters. South Korea has said it fired shells southward, not toward the North, as part of routine exercises last year.
"If they dare to impair our dignity again, the deluge of fire on Yeonpyeong Island will lead to the sea of fire in Blue House" in Seoul, the North's People's Army warned in a statement from Pyongyang. "They should not forget the lesson taught" by the island shelling.
If provoked again like last year, the North's military will launch merciless, annihilating and more powerful strikes to "blow up the island without any trace," the North's Committee for the Peaceful Reunification of Korea said in a separate statement later Thursday.
Both statements were carried by the official Korean Central News Agency.
The North has issued similar threats over the years at times of tension with South Korea.
The Korean peninsula remains in a technical state of war because their conflict ended in a truce, not a peace treaty. However, North Korea disputes the maritime border drawn by the UN in 1953, and the waters have been a flashpoint for violence over the years; Kazinform cites Arab News.
To learn more go to www.arabnews.com
