North Korea Threatens to Nuke South as It Prepares for Missile Test
North Korea’s threat today that foreigners should evacuate South Korea because of a risk of “thermo-nuclear war” is the latest effort by Pyongyang to pressure the United States and regional states to hold multilateral talks. While some North Korea watchers are still predicting a small-scale military attack, LIGNET judges that Pyongyang is more likely to launch a test of a ballistic missile and intensify efforts to resume negotiations.
The latest North Korean threat and what appears to be an imminent test of one or more ballistic missiles are probably timed to coincide with the 101st anniversary of the birth of Kim Il Sung and possibly U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry’s arrival in the region later this week.
Japan has quietly inserted itself into the crisis by preparing to intercept any North Korean missiles launched over its territory. Although Tokyo has taken this posture against Pyongyang before, it could be an opportunity for Prime Minister Shinzo Abe’s plan to make good on his plan to improve Japanese defense capabilities.
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PHOTO: Japanese Self-Defense Force soldiers work near a Patriot Advanced Capability-3 (PAC-3) missile at the Defense Ministry in Tokyo on April 9, 2013. Japanese leaders have put their missile defense assets on alert and have said Japan will shoot down any North Korean missile that overflies Japanese territory. (YOSHIKAZU TSUNO/AFP/Getty Images)
Russia Downplays North Korean Call to Evacuate as Deadline Nears
Asia and the Pacific
April 9 (Bloomberg) — Russia is keeping its North Korean embassy staffed with no additional security measures after the Asian nation warned diplomats to leave by tomorrow, saying it won’t be able to protect them while threatening nuclear strikes.
“We are working as normal, as we did a week ago,” embassy spokesman Denis Samsonov said today by phone from Pyongyang. “Everything that’s happening here at the moment is everyday routine.”
North Korea told countries including Russia to consider evacuating diplomats from the capital by April 10 and said foreigners in South Korea may be in danger. Tensions are escalating after the communist nation threatened to wage a pre- emptive nuclear war on the U.S. and South Korea.
Kim Jong Un’s regime warned last week that “the moment of explosion is approaching soon” and said it’s poised to conduct a “smaller, lighter and diversified nuclear strike.”
The Group of Eight, whose foreign ministers meet in London for two days starting tomorrow, rejects the confrontational and “belligerent line” take by North Korea, Alexander Lukashevich, a spokesman for Russia’s Foreign Ministry, said today, according to a statement on its website. Russia opposes any mass military buildup in the region and views any alternative to diplomatic engagement as creating a “threat of profound shocks” throughout Northeast Asia, he said.
The warning to diplomats in Pyongyang is part of “an escalating series of rhetorical statements, and the question is to what end,” U.S. State Department spokeswoman Victoria Nuland told reporters in Washington on April 5. The U.S. is seeking to ease tensions and can defend itself and allies, Susan Rice, the U.S. ambassador to the United Nations, said April 6.
South Korea’s military saw no immediate signs of North Korea making preparations for an attack, Defense Ministry spokesman Kim Min Seok said today, a day after he confirmed the North has been ready since February to conduct a fourth underground atomic weapon test.
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