The North Korean leader threatens again
The North Korean leader described as "very serious" the situation from the Korean peninsula, and knows there is an increase in tensions in the last few days, with a shootout on the sea, with new threats of a nuclear test launched by Pyongyang.
"The current situation is very serious," said Kim Jong-un in a meeting on Tuesday within a meeting of the senior military officials, according to his statements, presented on Wednesday by the official North Korean agency KCNA.
The leader has accused the authorities in Seoul and Washington that they don't take the opening signals launched by the North seriously and are responsible for the current frictions.
"The United States and other hostile forces, ignoring the generosity and goodwill, intensified their military maneuvers in order to destroy our republic politically, to isolate it economically and crush it militarily," said the North Korean leader, aged about 30 years that came to power after his father's death in late 2011.
The army and the people of North Korea will not accept this "American hostility" and "will turn it into little pieces."
As usual, Kim Jong-un's rhetoric is primarily targeting a domestic audience and the most warlike phrases are translated from Korean to English, in the KCNA news.
The relations between Seoul and Pyongyang have crossed in the beginning of 2014 a period of relative calm, marked by a high-level meeting between the officials of the two countries and a recent meeting of the Korean family members separated by the war (1950-1953).
Joint annual maneuvers between the South Korean forces and the U.S. caused protests from the Pyongyang side, which were, however, less violent than the one from a year ago.
Nevertheless, a few days after, the tone has tightened. North Korea has conducted several shootings with short-range rockets which, after the last week, started testing medium-range missiles.
Sunday, the country threatened to start a fourth nuclear test, and, on Monday, conducted exercises in the Yellow Sea, near the maritime border between the two Koreas, actions the Korean leader denies.
