Kerry decries N. Korean threat

Abandon planned missile launch, US Secretary of State orders Pyongyang

SEOUL: US Secretary of State John Kerry has demanded that North Korea abandon an expected missile launch as Pyongyang turns its nuclear threats on Japan amid a chilling new evaluation of its offensive capability.
 

At ease: Park and Kerry sharing a light moment before their meeting at the presidential Blue House in Seoul. — AP Kerry, visiting Seoul to give US backing to military ally South Korea, joined President Barack Obama in decrying North Korea’s incendiary rhetoric – and urged China to step in.

The air of crisis that has engulfed the region for weeks, since North Korea staged a rocket launch and atomic test, was given even greater menace from a US intelligence report that said it may now have a nuclear warhead in its arsenal.

US and South Korean military officials downplayed the assessment by the Defence Intelligence Agency (DIA), but Pyongyang warned of the direst results if Japan executes its threat to shoot down any North Korean missile.
The North’s Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) said such a “provocative” action would end with its instigators “consumed in nuclear flames”.

“Japan is always in the cross-hairs of our revolutionary army and if Japan makes a slightest move, the spark of war will touch Japan first,” KCNA said in a commentary.
Japan positioned Patriot anti-missile batteries around Tokyo this week to protect the 30 million people who live in the vast city.

“The rhetoric that we are hearing from North Korea is simply unacceptable by any standards,” Kerry told a news conference in Seoul alongside South Korean Foreign Minister Yun Byung-se.
Any missile launch would be a “huge mistake”, he said, adding that the United States and the rest of the international community would never accept North Korea as a nuclear state.

But with military tensions on the Korean peninsula at their highest level for years, Kerry said Washington also chose to “honour” the vision of South Korea’s new President Park Geun-hye, who was elected on a pledge of greater engagement with Pyongyang. — AFP