NK Hurls Continual Threats Ahead of Joint Drills

Ahead of the annual Seoul-Washington joint
military drills scheduled for early next month, Pyongyang has been bolstering
its threats, likely in a move to pressure the South and the U.S. as well as
build up justification for any future provocations. 

It is an act of provocation calling for
wrath upon itself,
North Koreas Party-run publication Rodong Sinmun wrote on Monday regarding the
joint military drills, threatening to
completely bury
them.
 Leader Kim Jong Eun, in an enlarged
meeting of the Workers
Party Central Military
Commission declared,
In the future, we will surely
wage war against the American Imperialists,
calling
for full readiness for mobilization to ensure rapid response to
any and all types of combat.” 

Last week, the young leader watched over
drills to attack and land on the west coast with mobilized silkworm missiles,
according to a Rodong Sinmun report on Saturday.
Turn
the enemy
s stronghold into a sea of fire, he ordered, stepping up Pyongyangs
threats.
 

South Koreas military
respond to these threats by reiterating that the Key Resolve drills are annual
events and solely defensive measures against the North Korea. It also warned
that if North Korea uses these drills as an excuse to threaten or provoke the
South, it will not hesitate to respond with full force.  
 

North Korea last year test-fired a number
of short-range missiles ahead of the same Key Resolve drills, driving up
tensions on the Korean Peninsula. Based on this incident, analysts believe
Pyongyang will likely carry out some form of provocation against the South
again this year.
 

North Korea has been stepping up its
threats in time for the joint military drills. It likely is trying to
consolidate domestic forces and pressure Seoul and Washington to incapacitate
the drills,
a North Korea expert told Daily NK on
condition of anonymity.  
 

He added that the North is likely to keep
intensifying its threats until the Key Resolve drills begin and then wait to
see how the South and the U.S. react.
In the end, this
move of ratcheting up tensions is to create more justification to carry out a
mid or high-level provocation,
he explained. 

Some believe the continual threats come
with politically loaded messages, designed to create the groundwork to boast
the country
s strengthened military capabilities both
domestically and abroad, keeping in line with the prescriptions stipulated by
Kim Jong Eun in his New Year
s Address. 

Moreover, on the 10th of this month,
Pyongyang held a meeting under the Political Bureau of the Chosun Workers
Party Central Committee and agreed to develop lighter, unmanned,
cutting-edge military equipment more suited for modern warfare, in light of the
70th anniversary of the Party and liberation from Japan
s colonial rule, followed by calling for restructuring within the
Central Military Commission–additional moves aimed at enhancing military power as announced in the New Year’s Address.