North Korea: ‘prepare to attack the US’
North Korean leader Kim Jong-un tells generals to prepare for an attack on the US, according to state media, after American stealth bombers flew over the Korean peninsula.
The country’s KCNA news agency said Kim Jong-Un had signed off on the order to train sights on American bases in South Korea and the Pacific after a midnight meeting with top generals.
The move was followed by reports of increased activity at North Korea’s mid to long-range missile sites, according to South Korea’s Yonhap news agency.
He finally signed the plan on technical preparations of strategic rockets of the KPA, ordering them to be on standby for fire so that they may strike any time the US mainland, its military bases in the operational theatres in the Pacific, including Hawaii – North Korean state television
It comes after two American stealth bombers flew over South Korea in a show of force to Pyongyang, following an escalation of rhetoric from the north’s young leader.
Both China and Russia have appealed for calm.
A ‘vicious cycle’
Moscow said the heightened military activity was slipping into a “vicious cycle” that could get out of control, implicitly criticising the US bomber flights.
Foreign minister Sergey Lavrov suggested that North Korea should also cool down, calling on “all sides not to flex their military muscle” and avoid the danger of a belligerent response
The US B-2 planes flew a 13,000-mile round trip from an air base in Missouri, dropping a dummy bomb on a target range in the South.
The planes were taking part in a joint South Korea-US military exercise that has inflamed tensions with Pyongyang, which earlier this month threatened to unleash an “all-out war” backed by nuclear weapons.
“This …. demonstrates the United States’ ability to conduct long range, precision strikes quickly and at will,” the US military said in a statement.
“The B-2 bomber is an important element of America’s enduring and robust extended deterrence capability in the Asia-Pacific region.”
‘Time has come to settle accounts’
KCNA reported that Mr Kim had “judged the time has come to settle accounts with the US imperialists in view of the prevailing situation”.
The agency said: “He finally signed the plan on technical preparations of strategic rockets of the KPA, ordering them to be on standby for fire so that they may strike any time the US mainland, its military bases in the operational theatres in the Pacific, including Hawaii.