North Korea warns of nuclear action

Monday, July 26, 2010

North Korea threatened "powerful nuclear deterrence" on Saturday in response to military drills supported by the U.S. and held by South Korea.

The National Defense Comission of North Korea, headed by their leader Kim Jong-il, declared that they would "counter with their powerful nuclear deterrence the largest-ever nuclear war exercises to be staged by the U.S. and the South Korean puppet forces" in a "retaliatory sacred war." Ri Tong-il, an official with North Korea’s delegation to the ASEAN security forum, had said earlier that they would show a "physical response" to the drills. Though Japan sent four military observers in apparent support of the drills, China criticized the plans.

Tensions had recently become especially high in both sides of Korea after the sinking of the warship Cheonan in South Korean waters, killing over 40 people. An international investigation concluded that the warship was sunk by a North Korean torpedo. North Korea still strongly denies any involvement in the incident, calling the results "fabricated" and refusing to apologize. "If anyone should apologize," said Ri, "it should be South Korea, responsible for driving the situation on the Korean peninsula to the brink of an explosion."

Despite this, on 25 July 2010, the US and South Korea began their major military drills together in the Sea of Japan.

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"South Korean navy ship sinks off North Korean coast" — Wikinews, March 26, 2010
"North Korea denies involvement in sinking of South Korean warship" — Wikinews, April 18, 2010
"Clinton warns North Korea of "provocative behavior"" — Wikinews, May 22, 2010
"US and South Korea to conduct naval exercises in response to warship sinking" — Wikinews, May 24, 2010

Sister links

ROKS Cheonan sinking

Sources

"North Korea ramps up threats against military exercises" — CNN, July 24, 2010
"BBC News - North Korea warns of nuclear 'sacred war'" — BBC News, 24 July 2010
Jim Gomez. "NKorea threatens 'nuclear deterrence' over drills" — Associated Press, 24 July 2010
"US South Korea drill: South Korea US military exercise increases the risk of war" — New Delhi Chronicle, 25 July 2010

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Articles presented on Wikinews reflect the specific time at which they were written and published, and do not attempt to encompass events or knowledge which occur or become known after their publication.

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Please note that due to our archival policy, we will not alter or update the content of articles that are archived, but will only accept requests to make grammatical and formatting corrections.

Note that some listed sources or external links may no longer be available online due to age.