Mick Hartley

The North Koreans aren’t happy about the recent election of a conservative government in South Korea:

North Korean Air Force fighters have approached skies near the demilitarized zone and the Northern Limit Line, the de facto border in the West Sea, on some 10 occasions since Feb. 25, when the new conservative South Korean government was inaugurated. On each occasion, South Korean fighters immediately scrambled to intercept them.

Last Friday, the North fired short-range missiles into the West Sea while fighters also flew close to the South as many as five times, creating simultaneous tension in the sea and the skies, a South Korean Defense Ministry official said. And on the ground, even after a regular mobile exercise was finished, the elite Mechanized Corps stationed in Hwanghae Province was recently spotted moving south — an unprecedented military move. […]

Meanwhile, in a telephone message to the South last Saturday, North Korea two-star general Kim Young-chol, the chief delegate to inter-Korean general-grade talks, demanded South Korea apologize for and withdraw what it says was a threat of a “preemptive strike” made by Gen. Kim Tae-young, the designated chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff. Elaborating on a plan to counter a nuclear attack from the North in his confirmation hearing, Kim said the South would identify and hit enemy locations suspected of storing nuclear weapons. The Defense Ministry denies Kim was talking of a preemptive strike. It is to decide within the next few days whether to send a reply to the North.

It’s that threat of a pre-emptive strike that really gets them. Check out what the official DPRK news agency has to say:

The head of the DPRK side’s delegation to the inter-Korean general-level military talks sent a notice to the chief delegate of the south side delegation on Saturday clarifying the stand of the Korean People’s Army as regards the outbursts calling for “a preemptive attack” let loose by the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff of the south Korean forces.

The head of the delegation in the notice recalled that at a confirmation hearing of the “National Assembly” on March 26 the chairman raised a hue and cry over the “nuclear threat” from the DPRK and went the lengths of calling for mounting a “preemptive attack” on its nuclear bases by use of precision guided weapons when necessary.

These outbursts are the gravest challenge ever in the history of the inter-Korean relations and a reckless provocation little short of a war declaration against the DPRK, he noted.

And, what’s more:

The threat that the south Korean forces will make a “preemptive strike” at the nuclear bases of the compatriots is a manifestation of the political immaturity and military ignorance as he does not know how our nuclear weapons were manufactured and at what they are targeted. What he uttered is nothing but a servile attitude betraying the sycophancy and submission towards his master as the guy echoed his brigandish assertion in a bid to put it into practice….

As we have clarified more than once, a preemptive strike is by no means a monopoly of the one party on the Korean Peninsula where there goes on the state of neither war nor peace. Our revolutionary armed forces always keep themselves battle ready as they have followed all military moves of the south Korean forces with vigilance. They will counter any slightest move for “preemptive strikes” at their nuclear bases with more rapid and more powerful preemptive strikes of their own mode. It is the traditional method of counteraction and militant mettle peculiar to our revolutionary armed forces to return fire for fire and counter any hard-line step with the toughest measure. The Korean People’s Army whose mission is to defend the socialist country under the banner of Songun will not remain an onlooker till the warmongers make a “preemptive strike”. They should bear in mind that once the more powerful preemptive strike of our own mode be launched, it will not merely plunge everything into flames but reduce it to ashes.

That’s telling ’em.