North Korea threatens nuclear strike against South and USA

North Korea threatened an indiscriminate 'pre-emptive nuclear strike of justice' on the United States and South Korea as the two began their largest ever military drills.

A woman walks past a public television screen showing file footage of a North Korean missile. Picture: AFP/Getty Images

The exercises – Key Resolve and Foal Eagle – are an annual event and always increase ­tension between the neighbouring Koreas.

The order for a “pre-emptive nuclear strike” was made ­yesterday in a g statement from the Pyongyang regime.

North Korea says it sees the games as a rehearsal for ­invasion. Last year, it threatened to turn Washington into a “sea of fire”.

“We will launch an all-out offensive to decisively counter the US and its followers’ hysterical nuclear war moves,” a newsreader on the state-run KRT news channel said.

Approximately 17,000 US forces are participating in the exercises, alongside around 300,000 South Korean troops – significant increases on 2015’s numbers.

Despite starting on the same day, Key Resolve is more computer simulation-driven and ends on 18 March, while Foal Eagle is focused on field exercises and runs until 30 April.

The North’s National Defence Commission threatened strikes against US bases in the Pacific and the US mainland, saying its enemies “are working with bloodshot eyes to infringe upon the dignity, sovereignty and vital rights” of North Korea.

“If we push the buttons to annihilate the enemies even right now, all bases of provocations will be reduced to seas in flames and ashes in a moment,” the North’s statement said. Responding, a South Korean defence ministry spokesman said North Korea must refrain from a “rash act that brings destruction upon itself.”

South Korea’s Yonhap news agencyreported that the allies will work on drills for precision attacks on North Korean leadership and its nuclear and missile arsenal in the event of war.

There is debate about whether North Korea is even capable of the kind of “strikes” it threatens. The North makes progress with each new nuclear test–- it staged its fourth in January – but it may have only crude nuclear bombs, be incapable of mounting them on long-range missiles and there is widespread doubt about whether Kim Jong-un’s regime has a reliable missile that could deliver such a bomb to the US mainland.