The North Korean government warned Thursday that it is capable of responding to attempted U.S. military actions in the region «with overwhelming nuclear force,» after U.S. Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin visited Seoul, the capital of South Korea, this week.
«The (Democratic People’s Republic of Korea) DPRK has a clear counterattack strategy capable of dealing with any short- and long-term scenarios attempted by the U.S. and its vassal forces, and will strongly control present and future potential challenges with overwhelming nuclear force,» a North Korean Foreign Ministry spokesman said, as quoted by KCNA.
In this regard, the spokesman accused the White House of being responsible for the escalation of tensions on the Korean peninsula, assuring that the political and military situation is at a «red line».
«The U.S. is going to unleash an all-out confrontation with the DPRK through continuous combined drills whose scale and scope have been greatly expanded,» he asserts, before adding that, during his visit, Austin expressed «the dangerous scenario of turning Korea into a huge war arsenal.»
The ministry has also insisted that Pyongyang was not interested in a dialogue with Washington «as long as it maintains its hostile policy and confrontational line.» «The U.S. is so shameless as to try to buy time by touting dialogue with the DPRK under a misleading banner that it has no intention to be hostile, while continuing its most heinous aggressive policy toward the DPRK,» it has zinged.
U.S. and South Korean troops on Wednesday conducted joint air drills over waters in the Yellow Sea, located between the Korean peninsula and China, the first such exercises since the beginning of the year.
The U.S. ambassador to South Korea, Philip Goldberg, hours earlier asked the South Korean government to «trust» in the «containment capacity» of the U.S. authorities in the face of the threat posed by North Korea to the region, trying to dispel growing doubts about Washington’s «complete readiness» to defend South Korea against a possible North Korean attack as Pyongyang continues with its ballistic and nuclear programs.
Source: (EUROPA PRESS)
