North Korea threatens to attack US over military exercises
By Mark Hensch, August 15, 2015, 04:53 pm, Source
North Korea is rattling its sabers over America’s role in multinational military exercises launching in South Korea next week, a according to CNN.
Pyongyang is infuriated the U.S. and its allies are working with its neighboring rival in the annual Ulchi Freedom Guardian event beginning next Monday.
“The further Ulchi Freedom Guardian joint military exercises are intensified, the stronger military counteraction the [Democratic People’s Republic of Korea] will take to cope with them,” said a spokesman for North Korea’s National Defense Commission (NDC) on Saturday.
“[North Korea will] retaliate against the U.S. with tremendous muscle,” he said, if the Ulchi Freedom Guardian operations went on as planned.
“The army and people of the DPRK are no longer what they used to be in the past when they had to counter the U.S. nukes with rifles,” the spokesman added.
“[North Korea] is the invincible power equipped with both [the] latest offensive and defensive means unknown to the world.”
Ulchi Freedom Guardian is a series of annual military exercises between South Korea, the U.S. and their other allies.
“[It is] to enhance … readiness, protect the region and maintain stability on the Korean peninsula,” according to a statement from the Korea-U.S. Combined Forces Command.
North Korean leadership detests the yearly event.
“If [the] United States wants its mainland to be safe, then the Ulchi Freedom Guardian should stop immediately,” a newswoman for North Korea’s state television KCNA said Saturday.
Ulchi Freedom Guardian is planned for 12 days concluding on Aug. 28, CNN said.
It features military participation from such U.S. allies as Australia, Britain, Canada, Colombia, Denmark, France and New Zealand.
North Korean leader Kim Jong Un reportedly told his nation’s troops to prepare for “sacred war” following the exercises in 2012.
