MOSCOW, March 7 (RIA Novosti) – North Korea warned on Thursday it would launch a preemptive nuclear strike against potential aggressors as the UN Security Council prepares to impose a new set of sanctions on the “rogue” nuclear state, Yonhap reported.
Yonhap cited the Rodong Sinmun, an organ of the ruling Workers' Party of Korea (WPK), as saying “the [N. Korean] military has become stronger and whether there is a nuclear conflict or a war involving more powerful weapons, North Korea has the potential to retaliate.”
Pyongyang announced on Tuesday that it would nullify the 1953 armistice that ended the three-year-long war on the Korean Peninsula, in anticipation of the UN vote and the upcoming Key Resolve and Foal Eagle joint military exercises involving South Korea and the United States, near North Korea's borders.
Rodong Sinmun also claimed that with the Korean War armistice agreement having been nullified, it “would not be strange if a nuclear war erupted” as Pyongyang can unleash an attack with the "push of a button" that would create a "sea of fire" and turn Washington and Seoul into "the final graves for the aggressors."
The international community condemned North Korea on February 12 after Pyongyang confirmed it had conducted a third nuclear test in defiance of UN resolutions and appeals from its neighbors.
The UN Security Council is expected to vote on Thursday on fresh sanctions against the isolated Communist regime, adding three North Korean officials and two entities to the existing “black list.”
The resolution was drafted by the United States and China, while Russia, which holds UN Security Council’s presidency in March, said it would support the new sanctions.
