North Korea puts rockets on standby for US, Russia warns against actions
30 March 2013 5:57 AM IST
Russia said on Friday that heightened military activity near North Korea was slipping into a ‘vicious cycle’ that could get out of control, implicitly criticising US bomber flights that followed threats from Pyongyang.
Foreign minister Sergei Lavrov suggested that North Korea should also cool down, calling on ‘all sides not to flex their military muscle’ and avoid the danger of a belligerent response. ‘We are concerned that alongside the adequate, collective reaction of the UN Security Council, unilateral action is being taken around North Korea that is increasing military activity,’ Lavrov said.
‘It is slipping toward the spiral of a vicious cycle,’ he said when asked about tensions on the Korean Peninsula at a joint news conference after talks with his Ukrainian counterpart.
North Korean leader Kim Jong-Un on Friday ordered preparations for strategic rocket strikes on the US mainland and military bases in the Pacific and South Korea. The order, issued at a meeting with army commanders, was a response to the use of nuclear-capable US B-2 stealth bombers in ongoing US joint military drills with South Korea, Kim said. In the event of any ‘reckless’ US provocation, N. Korean forces should ‘mercilessly strike US mainland military bases in the Pacific, including Hawaii and Guam, and those in South Korea,’ he said.
Foreign minister Sergei Lavrov suggested that North Korea should also cool down, calling on ‘all sides not to flex their military muscle’ and avoid the danger of a belligerent response. ‘We are concerned that alongside the adequate, collective reaction of the UN Security Council, unilateral action is being taken around North Korea that is increasing military activity,’ Lavrov said.
‘It is slipping toward the spiral of a vicious cycle,’ he said when asked about tensions on the Korean Peninsula at a joint news conference after talks with his Ukrainian counterpart.
North Korean leader Kim Jong-Un on Friday ordered preparations for strategic rocket strikes on the US mainland and military bases in the Pacific and South Korea. The order, issued at a meeting with army commanders, was a response to the use of nuclear-capable US B-2 stealth bombers in ongoing US joint military drills with South Korea, Kim said. In the event of any ‘reckless’ US provocation, N. Korean forces should ‘mercilessly strike US mainland military bases in the Pacific, including Hawaii and Guam, and those in South Korea,’ he said.
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