North Korea offered a warning to the top U.S. commander in South Korea. He said that it they continue with scheduled military drills with South Korean troops, they would “meet a miserable destruction.”
via Reuters report:
Pak Rim-su, chief delegate of the North Korean military mission to the inter-Korean truce village of Panmunjom, gave the message by phone to Gen. James Thurman, the commander of the U.S. Forces Korea, KCNA news agency said.
It came amid escalating tension on the divided Korean peninsula after the North’s third nuclear test earlier this month, in defiance of U.N. resolutions, drew harsh international condemnation.
A direct message from the North’s Panmunjom mission to the U.S. commander is rare.
South Korea and U.S. forces conduct these drills every year. And, every year noise comes from the northern half of the peninsula. However, this could be the most stern threat to date when Pak Rim-su said:
“If your side ignites a war of aggression by staging the reckless joint military exercises…at this dangerous time, from that moment your fate will be hung by a thread with every hour.
“You had better bear in mind that those igniting a war are destined to meet a miserable destruction.”
The military drills are scheduled to start March 1 and will continue for about two months.
Hopefully the new Secretary of State John Kerry is paying attention to this a little more than he is climate change.