ISLAMABAD – North Korea has accused the United States of “deploying largenuclear assets” on the Korean Peninsula and laying the foundation for apotential preemptive strike against it.
North Korean diplomat Ju Yong Chol told the UN-sponsored Conference onDisarmament in the Swiss city of Geneva on Tuesday that Washington wasseeking to aggravate the situation on the divided peninsula by deployingnukes in preparation for a possible preemptive attack.
“In view of the nature and scale of US military reinforcements, they aredesigned to make a preemptive strike against the DPRK,” the diplomat saidreferring to his country’s official name the Democratic People’s Republicof Korea.
“US officials including the defense secretary and the CIA directorrepeatedly talked about DPRK nuclear and missile threat to justify theirargument for a military option and a new concept of a so-called ‘bloodynose’, a limited preemptive strike on the DPRK is under considerationwithin the US administration,” Ju said.
The United States dropped Victor Cha, President Donald Trump’s pick forambassador to South Korea. Cha reportedly lost nomination for the positionof ambassador after voicing concerns about a potential “bloody-nose attack”on North Korea.
Months of fiery rhetoric between the United States and North Korea haveseen Trump drawing criticism at home for repeatedly using highly-menacinglanguage toward Pyongyang.
In recent months, Trump has engaged in a bitter war of words with NorthKorean officials, and has threatened to “totally destroy” the country if itthreatens the US or its allies.
In his first State of the Union address on Wednesday, Trump struck a direnote of warning about North Korea, saying the country’s “reckless pursuitof nuclear missiles could very soon threaten our homeland.”
Fed up with the American president’s harsh rhetoric, Pyongyang warned in astatement on Sunday that “If Trump does not get rid of his anachronisticand dogmatic way of thinking, he will only bring about the consequence offurther endangering security of the United States.”
In late November, Pyongyang successfully test-launched what Americanmilitary experts called a Hwasong-15 ICBM, the largest North Korean missiletested to date with a presumably long-enough range to deliver nuclearwarheads deep into the US mainland.
The US and its allies in the West and in Asia engineered tough UN sanctionson North Korea last year when Pyongyang test-fired two missiles in July andthen carried out its most powerful nuclear test in August.The photo, taken on November 29, 2017 and released on November 30, 2017 byNorth Korea’s official Korean Central News Agency (KCNA), shows launchingof the Hwasong-15 missile which is capable of reaching all parts of the US.(Photo by AFP)
However, many said the sanctions would not deter North Korea from pursuingits nuclear and missile program, which Pyongyang insists is part of itsdefense policy against the United States. Critics have repeatedly warnedthat sanctions would more affect North Korean people rather than itsmilitary and the government.