South
Korean President Park Geun-Hye vowed "strong retaliation" Monday to any
provocation by North Korea after Pyongyang declared it was formally at
war with Seoul.
Park held meeting with senior military officials and Defence Minister Kim Kwan-Jin, Park said she took the near-daily stream of bellicose threats emanating from the North "very seriously".
"I believe that we should make a strong and immediate retaliation without any other political considerations if (the North) stages any provocation against our people," she said.
Park, a conservative who had advocated cautious engagement with the North during her election campaign, has taken a more hardline position since assuming office in February, shortly after the North conducted its third nuclear test.
Military tensions between the two neighbours have been running high for weeks, with the North stepping up its hostile rhetoric against Seoul and Washington.
Russian media reports on North Korean original statement apparently stressed that the country would act "in accordance with wartime laws" if attacked, and that "from that time, North-South relations will enter a state of war."
North and South Korea are not technically "at peace" since no peace treaty was signed following the Korean War in 1953. The Demilitarized Zone between the countries is the most heavily armed border in the world.
On March 11, South Korea and the United States began annual large-scale military exercises, codenamed Key Resolve. The drills involve 10,000 South Korean and 3,500 US troops.
Prior to the exercises, Pyongyang threatened the United States with a preemptive nuclear strike amid warnings that it plans to terminate the Korean War Armistice Agreement.
It warned of retaliatory countermeasures if the United States and South Korea went ahead with the drills.
The United States on Thursday dispatched two nuclear-capable B-2 stealth bombers on an “extended deterrence” practice run over South Korea.
US officials said the exercise should serve “to demonstrate very clearly the resolve of the United States to deter against aggression on the Korean Peninsula.”
North Korea responded on Friday by placing its strategic rocket forces on standby to strike US and South Korean targets.
Russian media reported that South Korean news agency Yonhap had cited unnamed military sources as saying that “no special deployments of North Korean forces had been observed, despite this threatening rhetoric.”
Russia was in touch with six-party talks with partners over the Korean Peninsula nuclear issue following Pyongyang's declaration of "state of war" with South Korea, a senior Russian diplomat said Saturday.
"We are staying in contact with our partners in the six-party process in order to prevent the situation from getting beyond the political-diplomatic bounds," Russian Foreign Ministry's Ambassador-at-Large Grigory Logvinov told local media.
Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK) said Saturday it had entered a "state of war" with South Korea, with all matters between the two Koreas to be handled according to wartime condition.
The statement, issued jointly by the DPRK government, party and other organizations, warned that any military provocation near the land or sea border of the two sides would result "in a full-scale conflict and a nuclear war." Six-party talks, which group the DPRK, South Korea, the United States, Japan, Russia and China, began in 2003 but stalled in late 2008.
According to Logvinov, Russia could not remain indifferent to what was happening near its eastern borders, as "tension was increasing there and threatening statements were heard every day."
Russia hoped the situation on the Korean Peninsula will not "cross the dangerous line," he said, urging all relevant parties to show maximum responsibility and restraint.Media agencies
Park held meeting with senior military officials and Defence Minister Kim Kwan-Jin, Park said she took the near-daily stream of bellicose threats emanating from the North "very seriously".
"I believe that we should make a strong and immediate retaliation without any other political considerations if (the North) stages any provocation against our people," she said.
Park, a conservative who had advocated cautious engagement with the North during her election campaign, has taken a more hardline position since assuming office in February, shortly after the North conducted its third nuclear test.
Military tensions between the two neighbours have been running high for weeks, with the North stepping up its hostile rhetoric against Seoul and Washington.
Russian media reports on North Korean original statement apparently stressed that the country would act "in accordance with wartime laws" if attacked, and that "from that time, North-South relations will enter a state of war."
North and South Korea are not technically "at peace" since no peace treaty was signed following the Korean War in 1953. The Demilitarized Zone between the countries is the most heavily armed border in the world.
On March 11, South Korea and the United States began annual large-scale military exercises, codenamed Key Resolve. The drills involve 10,000 South Korean and 3,500 US troops.
Prior to the exercises, Pyongyang threatened the United States with a preemptive nuclear strike amid warnings that it plans to terminate the Korean War Armistice Agreement.
It warned of retaliatory countermeasures if the United States and South Korea went ahead with the drills.
The United States on Thursday dispatched two nuclear-capable B-2 stealth bombers on an “extended deterrence” practice run over South Korea.
US officials said the exercise should serve “to demonstrate very clearly the resolve of the United States to deter against aggression on the Korean Peninsula.”
North Korea responded on Friday by placing its strategic rocket forces on standby to strike US and South Korean targets.
Russian media reported that South Korean news agency Yonhap had cited unnamed military sources as saying that “no special deployments of North Korean forces had been observed, despite this threatening rhetoric.”
Russia was in touch with six-party talks with partners over the Korean Peninsula nuclear issue following Pyongyang's declaration of "state of war" with South Korea, a senior Russian diplomat said Saturday.
"We are staying in contact with our partners in the six-party process in order to prevent the situation from getting beyond the political-diplomatic bounds," Russian Foreign Ministry's Ambassador-at-Large Grigory Logvinov told local media.
Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK) said Saturday it had entered a "state of war" with South Korea, with all matters between the two Koreas to be handled according to wartime condition.
The statement, issued jointly by the DPRK government, party and other organizations, warned that any military provocation near the land or sea border of the two sides would result "in a full-scale conflict and a nuclear war." Six-party talks, which group the DPRK, South Korea, the United States, Japan, Russia and China, began in 2003 but stalled in late 2008.
According to Logvinov, Russia could not remain indifferent to what was happening near its eastern borders, as "tension was increasing there and threatening statements were heard every day."
Russia hoped the situation on the Korean Peninsula will not "cross the dangerous line," he said, urging all relevant parties to show maximum responsibility and restraint.Media agencies
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