North Korea Threatens To Wipe Out The U.S. "Once And For All"

SEOUL, South Korea — North Korea condemned a recent U.S. pledge to provide nuclear defense of South Korea, saying Thursday that the move boosts its justification to have atomic bombs and invites a potential "fire shower of nuclear retaliation."

The commentary in Pyongyang's main Rodong Sinmun newspaper was the North's latest reaction to last week's summit between President Barack Obama and South Korean President Lee Myung-bak. The allies issued a joint statement committing the U.S. to defend the South with nuclear weapons.

It also came as an American destroyer trailed a North Korean ship suspected of shipping weapons in violation of a U.N. resolution punishing Pyongyang's May 25 nuclear test, and as anticipation mounted that the North might test-fire short- or mid-range missiles in the coming days.

The North's newspaper claimed that the "nuclear umbrella" commitment made it more likely for the U.S. to mount a nuclear attack on the communist North, and only "provides us with a stronger justification to have nuclear deterrent."

It also amounts to "asking for the calamitous situation of having a fire shower of nuclear retaliation all over South Korea" in case of a conflict, the paper said.

North Korea has long claimed that the U.S. is plotting to invade it and has used the claim to justify its development of nuclear weapons. The U.S. has repeatedly said it has no intention of attacking the North.

In a separate editorial marking the 1950 outbreak of the Korean War, the Rodong said the North "will never give up nuclear deterrent ... and will further strengthen it" as long as Washington remains hostile.

The war ended in 1952 with a truce, not a peace treaty, leaving the peninsula divided and in a state of war. The U.S. has 28,500 troops in South Korea to protect against hostilities.

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Ties between the two Koreas warmed significantly after the first-ever summit of their leaders in 2000, but relations soured after the conservative Lee took office last year.

The Rodong called Lee a "hound" of the U.S. "master" in Thursday's commentary.

The new U.N. resolution seeks to clamp down on North Korea's trading of banned arms and weapons-related material by requiring U.N. member states to request inspections of ships carrying suspected cargo.

North Korea has said it would consider interception of its ships a declaration of war.

The U.S. has been seeking to get key nations to enforce the sanctions aggressively. Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton called the foreign ministers of Russia and China to discuss efforts to enforce the U.N. punishments, State Department spokesman Ian Kelly said.

The Kang Nam is believed to be the first North Korean ship to be tracked under the resolution. It left the North Korean port of Nampo a week ago and is believed bound for Myanmar, South Korean and U.S. officials said.

Myanmar state television on Wednesday evening said another North Korean vessel was expected to pick up a load of rice and that the government had no information about the Kang Nam.

A senior U.S. defense official said Wednesday that the ship had already cleared the Taiwan Strait.

He said he didn't know how much range the Kang Nam has _ whether or when it may need to stop in some port to refuel _ but that the ship has in the past stopped in Hong Kong's port.

Another U.S. defense official said he tended to doubt reports that the Kang Nam was carrying nuclear-related equipment, saying the information officials have received seems to indicate the cargo is conventional munitions.

The U.S. officials spoke on condition of anonymity because they were discussing intelligence.

The U.S. and its allies have not decided whether to contact and request inspection of the ship, Pentagon press secretary Geoff Morrell said Wednesday. He said he didn't believe a decision would come soon.

Reports about possible missile launches from the North highlighted the tension on the Korean peninsula.

The North has designated a no-sail zone off its east coast from June 25 to July 10 for military drills.

A senior South Korean government official said the ban is believed connected to North Korean plans to fire short- or mid-range missiles. He spoke on condition of anonymity, citing department policy.

South Korea's Yonhap news agency reported that the North may fire a Scud missile with a range of up to 310 miles (500 kilometers) or a short-range ground-to-ship missile with a range of 100 miles (160 kilometers) during the no-sail period.

U.S. defense and counterproliferation officials in Washington said they also expected the North to launch short- to medium-range missiles. The officials spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss sensitive intelligence.

North Korea had warned previously it would fire a long-range missile as a response to U.N. Security Council condemnation of an April rocket launch seen as a cover for its ballistic missile technology.

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Associated Press writers Hyung-jin Kim in Seoul and Pauline Jelinek, Pamela Hess and Lolita Baldor in Washington contributed to this report.

Comments

[HappyMarsden]

So America invades Iraq, when Hussein made and was no threat to the country, on the premise of nuclear weapons that don`t exist. This guy has confirmed nukes that do exist, and has threatened to wipe America off the face of the map. But America does not even talk about attacking N Korea. Lovely.

[hilary916]

It's not that simple. If we were to attack North Korea, that would pretty much guarantee a war with China.

[dmyron]

sounds like a wonderful idea.........

[mymic1]

not necessarily.
the chinese, who are now cino, communists in name only, are too much a part of the capitalistic world economy to allow little kim to threatened their wallets. i would not be surprised if beijing is quietly behind the scenes telling the north koreans that there's a limit to "having their back" and they are this close to ending up as asia's largest parking lot.

secondly, people seem to forget that this president is a pretty good student of presidential history and despite all the people who seem to want to paint him as weak or timid both here and abroad just remember there once was a president who preferred to "SPEAK SOFTLY AND CARRY A BIG STICK"...

[Conservador-Rebelde]

Well, that was true recently, but they have since been distancing themselves from N. Korea, now that they've seen the crazy at work.

[SMolloy]

I think somebody needs a wedgie.

[Conservador-Rebelde]

Let's make an analogy:
A playground with quite a few kids. Some of them have a big sand castle, and other kids are building theirs/asking for help to build theirs. One of the kids has recently built one and has claimed they will give another kid, named "Lady Liberty," "what's coming to them." If you were "Lady Liberty," how would you respond to that kid? Wouldn't you justly stop their castle-building progress in order to prevent your castle from being destroyed? Maybe you should go tell the playground duty, named UN. Of course, the duty never helps like they should, so the problem continues. Talking to an irrational kid never works either, so what's the solution?

[Carmando]

If you ignore bullies they loose their power...Remeber the last time we responded to empty threats with all out war? Let me refresh your memory: it didn't go well.

[Conservador-Rebelde]

Well, let me make this clear... This time the bully has quite a bit more power and lives at stake than a little kid at a sandbox.

[ObservantDem]

i think we should take all threats seriously but it's important to remember that by proceeding the way Obama is, it's making those who make those threats look stupid. he's saying "we're willing to talk to you and sort things out, you guys aren't" It would not surpise me at all if most north korean's think bush is still president.

[mergina]

You know Kim Jong Mentally iLL, poor as you must be always begging or threatening for money, you could save a lot of money by making those Pizza Pan hats a tad smaller on the GAzillion uniforms you must produce. Might be a huge cost cut and you can stop pressing so hard to BE VAPORIZED.

[Mort]

Lil Kim will have to grow up before anyone takes him seriously.

[Firbolg]

I hear the dear leader is a big movei fan. I think he got his plan of attack from "The Mouse That Roared".

[Muno]

It is very clear that most Americans have no understanding of the world around them, and even with the wars currently being fought, we still believe in the invicibility of the United States. As such North Korean threats are not being taken seriously. Let us say North Korea hit South Korea, then what? Is the world prepared to deal with such a scenario? If North Korea attempted to strike the United States, what next? A military invasion? A nuclear strike to wipe off North Koreans? Obviously North Korea will not and cannot wipe the USA off the map for good, however, the best is for the North not to do anything, otherwise the situation might be more tricky than Afganistan and Iraq.

[Conservador-Rebelde]

Question: If they start a nucIear @ttack, is the United States justified in nuking them? What about the millions of innocent lives. Wouldn't we invade them instead? If so, why should N. Korea be afraid of Iaunching warheads?

[wayicit]

This guy still thinks it's the 50's. when the Soviet Union & China were backing
them up. But, now even they're distancing themselves from them.

The N.Korean people should do something about this guy, before they are all gone.

[Trueheart]

Can one safely assume that all of you who advocate taking this guy down are going to enlist and put your lives on the line? Ooops! I didn't read carefully enough. You think we can bomb him back into the Stone Age? Maybe just the presidential palace and key military installations. No human collateral loss, right?

I didn't have much tolerance for the attitude that the USA has such highly developed precision technology that we can target strategic locations without creating hell for civilians. It's the same Desert Storm machismo that continued into Iraq. I thought we would have had enough proof by now that it was an erroneous assumption, but from many comments, I guess not. Maybe some of you should read the comment by the Korean War vet who witnessed the horror first hand.

[Orwellian]

It's so very possible that Jong Il is in failing health, and this overcompensating mighty bluster is part extreme paranoia and part antler butting while he is at his weakest, to keep people away from North Korea while he is at his weakest ever to preserve the leadership for his son. His talk is overly aggressive, and makes me wonder if the man had a stroke a while back, and needs to be muzzled by his own from within before he causes an actual world wide incident.

[derekc06]

OMG! Save us!

[loki]

LIttle Kim must have received the board game RIsk for his birthday or something, because that is the only way he could wipe the USA out. He just doesnt have the resources. We are a big patch of land, and it will take more than what he has to do this. Unless this is a pre orchistrated event to get the MIC into the golden child seat again and get the money flowing into their companies again. I would discount a possible collusion between the MIC, Neo Cons and Little Kim.

[GayIthacan]

Reminds me of when I was 7 years old and I used to scream at my Dad:

"You're not the boss of me!!!!!!!!"

Of course, he could have put me through a solid brick wall at any time. :D

[gaebolgaes]

ha HA HA! THAT WAS SO FUNNY. MISTER KIM..YOU WITTLE TINY WITTLE MAN~ if you don't tell the world who makes your wittle elevator shoes..i will tell a short joke every day until you do. i'm a man of my word. ha ha he he hee ha.

[terramartom]

Pull this man's pants down and wack his bottom!