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SEOUL, South Korea, Nov 01 (AP) \u2014 North Korea issued a veiled threat Tuesday to use nuclear weapons to get the U.S. and South Korea to \u201cpay the most horrible price in history,\u201d an escalation of its fiery rhetoric targeting the ongoing large-scale military drills between its rivals.<\/p>\n
Animosities on the Korean Peninsula have been running high in recent months, with North Korea testing a string of nuclear-capable missiles and adopting a law authorizing the preemptive use of its nuclear weapons in a broad range of situations. Some experts still doubt North Korea could use nuclear weapons first in the face of more superior U.S. and South Korean forces.<\/p>\n
North Korea has argued its recent weapons tests were meant to issue a warning to Washington and Seoul over their series of joint military drills that it views as an invasion rehearsal, including this week\u2019s exercises involving about 240 warplanes.<\/p>\n
Pak Jong Chon, a secretary of the ruling Workers\u2019 Party who is considered a close confidant of leader Kim Jong Un, called the so-called \u201cVigilant Storm\u201d air force drills \u201caggressive and provocative.\u201d<\/p>\n
Pak also accused the Pentagon of formulating a North Korean regime collapse as a major policy objective in an apparent reference to the Pentagon\u2019s recently released National Defense Strategy report. The report stated any nuclear attack by North Korea against the United States or its allies and partners \u201cwill result in the end of that regime.\u201d<\/p>\n
He slammed South Korean military leaders over what he called \u201crubbish\u201d comments that threatened to destroy North Korea if it uses nuclear weapons. South Korea\u2019s military has warned North Korea that using its nuclear weapons would put it on a \u201cpath of self-destruction.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cIf the U.S. and South Korea attempt to use armed forces against (North Korea) without any fear, the special means of the (North\u2019s) armed forces will carry out their strategic mission without delay,\u201d Pak said, in an apparent reference to his country\u2019s nuclear weapons.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe U.S. and South Korea will have to face a terrible case and pay the most horrible price in history,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
U.S. and South Korean officials have steadfastly said their drills are defensive in nature and that they have no intentions of attacking North Korea.<\/p>\n
Pak\u2019s statement is the North\u2019s second warning to the United States and South Korea this week. On Monday, the North\u2019s Foreign Ministry warned of \u201cmore powerful follow-up measures\u201d in response to its rivals\u2019 air force drills.<\/p>\n
South Korean officials have said North Korea could up the ante in coming weeks by detonating its first nuclear test device since September 2017, which could possibly take the country a step closer to its goals of building a full-fledged nuclear arsenal capable of threatening regional U.S. allies and the American mainland.<\/p>\n
Some experts say North Korea would eventually want to use its expanded nuclear arsenal as a leverage in future negotiations with the United States to win sanctions relief and other concessions.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
SEOUL, South Korea, Nov 01 (AP) \u2014 North Korea issued a veiled threat Tuesday to use nuclear weapons to get the U.S. and South Korea to \u201cpay the most horrible price in history,\u201d an escalation of its fiery rhetoric targeting the ongoing large-scale military drills between its rivals. Animosities on the Korean Peninsula have been […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[15],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-203822","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-world"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/arunachaltimes.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/203822","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/arunachaltimes.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/arunachaltimes.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/arunachaltimes.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/arunachaltimes.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=203822"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/arunachaltimes.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/203822\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/arunachaltimes.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=203822"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/arunachaltimes.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=203822"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/arunachaltimes.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=203822"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}