North Korea has warned it will take “physical actions” after South Korea and the United States agreed to deploy the Terminal High Altitude Area Defence (THAAD) missile defence system to cope with the nuclear threat from Pyongyang.
"We once again warn the enemies that it is the steadfast will of the Korean People's Army (KPA) to make merciless retaliatory strikes to reduce South Korea to a sea of flames and debris once an order is issued," the military's artillery bureau was quoted as saying by the Korean Central News Agency (KCNA).
On Saturday, the North unsuccessfully test-fired a submarine-launched ballistic missile off its east coast, marking the fifth attempt since last May, according to the South Korean military.
In March, the UN Security Council imposed its toughest sanctions to date on North Korea after it carried out a fourth nuclear test and a long-range ballistic missile test soon afterwards.
The North also said that it had cut the only remaining official channel of communication with the US, through the North's diplomatic mission to the United Nations in New York, because of a fresh round of sanctions against its leader, Kim Jong-un, over human rights abuses.
The North said the siting of THAAD was part of Washington’s efforts to boost its position in the Asia-Pacific.
The US has maintained a significant troop presence of round 28,500 troops in South Korea, after the Korean War (1950-53), which ended in a truce, not a peace treaty, leaving the divided peninsula still technically at war.
“Due to such US sabre-rattling, peace and security on the peninsula and in the region are seriously threatened and the danger of a nuclear war is becoming a reality,” the spokesman said in a statement carried by the KCNA.
“Should the US provoke a nuclear war on the peninsula, it will inevitably face a baptism of nuclear strike before anybody else,” he said.
South Korea's president Park Geun-hye defended the decision, saying that it was not aimed at undermining the security interests of any other countries.
“THAAD will not target any country other than North Korea, and will not encroach upon the security interests of any third country. [We] have no reason to do so,” she said after meeting senior military officials, the Yonhap news agency reported.
"The international community should understand that Seoul does not have any intention of targeting other countries or threatening other countries," she added.
“Growing nuclear and missile threats are a very critical issue where the future of the Republic of Korea and the lives of our people are at stake,” she said. “As president, I have an obligation to protect our people and nation.”
Weapons systems
The THAAD location has also spread geopolitical ripples throughout the region, with both China and Russia angry that Seoul is deploying THAAD as they believe it could also be used against its weapons systems and harm their strategic security interests.
China is a close ally of North Korea, but it has been wrong-footed by Pyongyang on its nuclear plans and has backed United Nations sanctions, albeit reluctantly.
An editorial by an academic called Jin Kai in the Global Times newspaper said the missile threat posed by North Korea was "no more than an excuse".
“This time, the deployment of THAAD has further cornered China – a rising power that naturally needs more space but truly finds itself being cornered,” the editorial said.
Separately, the Xinhua news agency announced that China had introduced a new tourism initiative with North Korea, which allows Chinese tourists to visit Sinjiju across the border from the city of Dandong for a half a day without a passport.
Dandong is opposite Sinuiju across the Yalu River, and more than 10,000 tourists travel to the North from there every year.
