A North Korean senior military official has threatened the United States with a nuclear strike after accusing Washington of raising tensions in the Korean peninsula.
“If the US … threaten our sovereignty and survival,… our troops will fire our nuclear-armed rockets at the White House and the Pentagon – the sources of all evil,” said Hwang Pyong-so, director of the military’s General Political Bureau, during a address to a large military rally in Pyongyang on Sunday.
He also added that recent joint military drills between the US and South Korea have increased tensions in the Korean peninsula.
Also during the rally, other top military officials threatened both the US and South Korea.
“We are fully prepared to give a taste of real war to South Korea and the imperialist US forces that dream of domination and assimilation. We are just waiting for the orders,” Lt. Gen. Kim Sang-ryong said.
Washington and Seoul launched a joint five-day maritime maneuver in South Korean waters on July 16. The war game involved the USS George Washington carrier strike group. The 88,000-ton nuclear-powered aircraft carrier was loaded with about 70 aircrafts.
Meanwhile, Strategic Commander Kim Rak-kyum said, if North Korea is threatened, the army will “fire warheads at not only the stronghold of imperialism itself, but also at US military bases around the world.”
South Korea claims that the navy drills are humanitarian in nature, while North Korea dubs them as a rehearsal for invasion.
The two countries remain technically at war because the 1950-53 Korean War ended in an armistice, not a peace deal.