Jon Chol Jin/Associated Press
University students marched through Kim Il Sung
Square in downtown Pyongyang, North Korea, on Friday.
Multimedia
The United States criticized the North Korean threat, which came one day
after American forces had carried out an unusual practice bombing
exercise with advanced aircraft across South Korea.
“The United States is fully capable of defending itself and our allies,”
said Lt. Col. Catherine Wilkinson, a Pentagon spokeswoman in
Washington."North Korea’s bellicose rhetoric and threats follow a
pattern designed to raise tensions and intimidate others.”
The back-and-forth was viewed with worry by China and Russia. China’s
Foreign Ministry reiterated its calls for restraint. Russia was more
explicit, with its foreign minister, Sergey V. Lavrov, telling reporters
in Moscow that he was increasingly concerned about a situation that
could “get out of control — it will descend into the spiral of a vicious
cycle.”
Mr. Kim’s order, which North Korea said was given during an emergency
meeting early Friday, was similar to the one issued Tuesday when the
North’s top military command told all its missile and artillery units to
be on the “highest alert” and ready to strike the United States and
South Korea in retaliation against their joint military exercises.
But by attributing such an order to its top leader, North Korea tried to add weight to its threat.
“We believe they are taking follow-up steps,” said Kim Min-seok,
spokesman of the South Korean Defense Ministry, referring to increased
activities of the North Korean military units. "South Korean and
American intelligence authorities are closely watching whether North
Korea is preparing its short, medium, and long-range missiles, including
its Scud, Rodong and Musudan.”
He did not elaborate. But government officials and South Korean media
said that there had been a surge in vehicle and troop movements at North
Korean missile units in recent days as the United States and South
Korea has been conducting joint military drills. The national news
agency Yonhap quoted an anonymous military source as saying that North
Korean vehicles had been moving to Tongchang-ri near the North’s western
border with China, where its Unha-3 rocket blasted off in December.
North Korea might be preparing for an engine test ahead of a long-range
rocket test, the source was quoted as saying. Scud and Rodong are the
North's mainstay short- and medium-range missiles. The Musudan, deployed
around 2007 and displayed for the first time during a military parade
in the North Korean capital, Pyongyang, in 2010, is a road-mobile
intermediate-range ballistic missile with a range of more than 1,900
miles, according to the South Korean Defense Ministry.
In an angry reaction to the sanctions that the United Nations imposed
after North Korea’s launching of a three-stage rocket in December and
its third nuclear test last month, the North has repeatedly threatened
to strike Washington, as well as the American military bases around the
Pacific and in South Korea, with nuclear-armed long-range missiles.
A photo released by the North’s official Korean Central News Agency on
Friday showed Mr. Kim conferring with his top generals on what the
agency called “plans to strike the mainland U.S.” A military chart
behind them showed what appeared to be trajectories of North Korean
missiles hitting major cities in the United States.
North Korea also said its leader, Mr. Kim, “finally signed the plan on
technical preparations of strategic rockets of the K.P.A., ordering them
to be standby for fire so that they may strike any time the U.S.
mainland, its military bases in the operational theaters in the Pacific,
including Hawaii and Guam, and those in South Korea.” K.P.A. stands for
the Korean People’s Army.
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