SEOUL, South Korea \u2014 North Korea on Tuesday lashed out at an upcoming joint US-South Korean military exercise, warning it would attack the South and the US mainland in case of any armed provocation.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The South and its close US ally will next month hold their largest-ever annual exercise in response to the North’s recent nuclear test and long-range rocket launch, Seoul’s defense ministry has announced.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The North’s military supreme command said the allies planned to practice a “beheading operation” aimed at the North’s leadership, and other moves to neutralize its nuclear weapons and missiles.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
If there were even a “slight sign” of special forces moving to carry out such operations, the military said, “strategic and tactical” preemptive attacks would be launched.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The primary target would be the South’s presidential Blue House, it said in a statement on the official news agency, condemning it as “the center for hatching plots for confrontation with the fellow countrymen in the north, and reactionary ruling machines.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The North also threatened attacks on US bases in the Asia-Pacific and the mainland.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
It said it has “the most powerful and ultra-modern strike means” in the world capable of “dealing fatal blows at the US mainland any moment and in any place.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Such blows would “reduce the cesspool of all evils to ashes, never to rise again on our planet”, it added in a reference to the United States.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The North habitually claims that the annual Key Resolve\/Foal Eagle exercise is a rehearsal for invasion while Seoul and Washington say it is purely defensive.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Tensions are high as the United Nations considers tougher sanctions against the North to punish it for January’s nuclear test and this month’s rocket launch.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The South, in an unprecedentedly tough move, has shut down a Seoul-financed and jointly-run industrial estate in the North, saying it was helping finance its neighbor’s military programs.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
North Korea on Tuesday lashed out at an upcoming joint US-South Korean military exercise, warning it would attack the South and the US mainland in case of any armed provocation.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":77929,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_yoast_wpseo_meta-robots-noindex":"","_yoast_wpseo_meta-robots-nofollow":"","_yoast_wpseo_canonical":"","_acf":"","_yoast_wpseo_primary_category":33,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","_smg_distribution_targets":[]},"categories":[33],"tags":[],"coauthors":[2793],"class_list":["post-36554","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-home"],"acf":{"subheadline":"","legacy_arc_id":"7CXNXUIDS5DMDJYOWP6M5DECHA","arc_canonical_url":"\/home\/2016\/02\/24\/north-korea-warns-of-preemptive-strikes-against-us-south-korea\/","remove_feature_photo":false,"is_sponsored":false,"subtype":"","redirect_url":"","disable_inline_ads":false,"native_logo_pretext":"Presented By:"},"yoast_head":"\n