Home   >   News   >   North Korea   >   N. Korea warns of retaliation against Park

N. Korea warns of retaliation against Park

March 22, 2016

SEOUL (Yonhap) — North Korea threatened Wednesday to wage a retaliatory war against President Park Geun-hye in the latest show of defiance against tougher sanctions and joint military drills between Seoul and Washington.

“From this moment, the North’s army and revolutionary forces will push for a retaliatory war to eliminate the United States and Park’s followers in the name of justice,” the North’s committee handling inter-Korean affairs said in a statement carried by the country’s official Korean Central News Agency.

It warned that its patience is wearing thin over Washington and Seoul’s “reckless” military provocations.

“We do not utter empty words. Miserable ends to be faced by the U.S. and South Korea will vindicate our warnings,” the committee said.

North Korea has made similar threats in the past, but the latest one came amid growing speculation that it may carry out another nuclear test and launch missiles in the near term.

Seoul and Washington have started their largest joint military drills ever, which will come to a close at the end of April. The North has long denounced them as a rehearsal for a northward invasion, a charge denied by Seoul and Washington.

The North ratchets up its bellicose rhetoric whenever Seoul and Washington hold the military exercises.

Earlier this month, the North was slapped with tougher United Nations Security Council’s sanctions over its January nuclear test and long-range rocket launch in February.