[Courtesy of Korean Air Force]
South Korea warned of North Korea's regime collapse Wednesday after Pyongyang threatened to strike Seoul's presidential office and US military installations in the Asia-Pacific region.
It was the latest in the war of words, which escalated following North Korea's nuclear and long-range rocket tests.
The South's Joint Chiefs of Staff (JCS) said in a statment that South Korean troops would sternly retaliate if North North translates its threat into action.
"Any reckless provocation ... will expedite the collapse of its dictatorial system," it said.
The JCS warning came after the North's military sumere command said in a statement late Tuesday that it would use all possible measures to counter any attempts to decapitate its leader and collapse its regime.
North Korean troops are ready to "immediately and mercilessly punish without slightest leniency, tolerance and patience anyone provoking the dignified supreme headquarters even a bit", it said.
The first subject of retaliation is South Korea's presidential office, the North's statement said, describing US forces in the Asia-Pacific region and the mainland as its next targets.
North Korea has ratcheted up its rhetoric ahead of an annual US-South Korea joint exercise this spring. The Key Resolve exercise involving 15,000 US troops and 290,000 South Korean troops will begin in early March, along with the Foal Eagle field training drill.
Military officials have said this year’s Key Resolve would test a new operational scheme called "Operations Plan(OPLAN) 5015" to prepare the allies for preemptive attacks against North Korea ahead of its possible invasion across the border. Washington will also exercise a quick dispatch of overseas troops to the peninsula.
There are about 30,000 US troops permanently stationed in South Korea. Extra US military assets and personnel will come from abroad for the spring drills that Washington and Seoul insist are purely defensive in nature, but which Pyongyang condemns as provocative rehearsals for an attack on the North.
Washington has already displayed powerful and strategic weapons to the peninsula such as a B-52 bomber, F-22 stealth fighter jets and an attack submarine. The nuclear-powered supercarrier USS John C. Stennis is to participate in the upcoming exercise.
아주경제 임장원 기자 = cwlim34@ajunews.com
reporter
Park Sae-jin
swatchsjp@ajunews.com
