NK Threatens to Nuke S. Korea

North Korea yesterday said it could launch a nuclear attack South Korea and blasted South Korean President Lee Myung-bak as a pawn of the U.S.

The Rodong Shinmun, the official daily of the North Korean Workers’ Party, said in a commentary that President Lee is a “hunting” and “faithful” dog of the U.S.

On U.S. President Barack Obama’s assurance of “expanded deterrence” against the North in his summit with President Lee June 16, the commentary said, “The move helps us further justify our ownership of nuclear deterrence and could result in a disastrous situation of nuclear revenge against the South in the event of war.”

The article marked the North’s first specific threat of a nuclear attack against the South on the 59th anniversary of the outbreak of the Korean War.

The newspaper criticized item by item the declaration of a joint vision following the Seoul-Washington summit and blasted the South in the article “Disgusting Kiss between Ruler and Follower (Critique on Renegade Lee Myung-bak’s U.S. moves) held at the Rose Garden in the White House.”

Pyongyang blasted President Lee as a “faithful dog that bites the Korean people by taking the lead in the implementation of the U.S. policy of aggression against Korea and nuclear confrontation against our republic (North Korea).”

The North had insisted that its nuclear weapons development was a defensive measure against U.S. attacks, but has recently changed its stance to describe it as an “offensive strategy.”

kyle@donga.com