N. Korea threatens 'deadly blows' against U.S., S. Korea

SEOUL, July 26 (Yonhap) -- North Korea threatened to "mercilessly and resolutely"
counter any hostility from South Korea and the United States Sunday, accusing the
two of trying to provoke a war on the Korean Peninsula.
The renewed threats came one day before the 56 year anniversary marking the end
of the three-year Korean War.
"We will deal unimaginably deadly blows at the U.S. imperialists and the South
Korean puppets if they ignite a war, obsessed with a foolish ambition, and
achieve the historic cause of national reunification, the cherished desire of the
nation, without fail," Kim Yong-chun, vice chairman of the North's National
Defense Commission, said.
The remarks came at a ceremony held Saturday marking the end of the 1950-53
Korean War, according to a report by the North's Korean Central News Agency. The
North's defense commission is headed by its reclusive and unchallenged leader Kim
Jong-il.
Kim Yong-chun, also a vice marshal of the Korean People's Army, said a
touch-and-go situation was now prevailing on the Korean Peninsula due to
"sanctions and military provocations" by the U.S. and bellicose South Korean
forces.
Various sanctions were imposed on the communist nation earlier this year by the
U.N. Security Council as punishment for its May 25 nuclear test. Pyongyang has
repeatedly rejected the U.N. sanctions and has since test fired a series of
missiles in response.
"We will mercilessly and resolutely counter the enemy's 'sanctions' with
retaliation, its 'all-out war' with all-out war," the North Korean general said.
The Korean War broke out after a surprise invasion across the military
demarcation line by the North's communist forces at dawn on June 25 1950.
Pyongyang, however, often accuses Seoul and Washington of launching the
fratricidal war.
"The army and people of the DPRK ... beat back the U.S. imperialist aggressor
forces, who boasted of being the 'strongest' in the world, in the hard-fought
Fatherland Liberation War and won historic victory," Kim was quoted as saying
during Saturday's meeting.
The DPRK stands for the Democratic People's Republic of Korea, the official name
of North Korea.
bdk@yna.co.kr
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