Roundup: S.Korea, DPRK escalate war of words amid tensions

South Korea and the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK) escalated war of words with violent languages such as "senile granny" and "regime collapse" exchanged amid rising tensions on the Korean peninsula.

South Korea's Joint Chiefs of Staff (JCS) issued a statement on Wednesday in response to the DPRK's warning of striking South Korea's presidential office Cheong Wa Dae.

The supreme command of Korean People's Army (KPA), the military forces of the DPRK, issued a statement on Tuesday that the first target of attacks would be Cheong Wa Dae and other South Korean authorities if any "small movements" are detected from combined forces of South Korea and the United States.

The command said that its military would enter the second phase of attacks targeting U.S. bases in the Asia-Pacific region and even the U.S. mainland if South Korean armed forces continue to make military provocations.

It accused the United States and South Korea of attempting to bring about a "collapse of the DPRK socialist system," pointing out the "beheading operation," in which the U.S.-South Korea forces targets the DPRK leadership through preemptive attacks against Pyongyang.

The warning came ahead of the scheduled joint annual war games between Seoul and Washington, which Pyongyang has denounced as a declaration of war.

This year's joint military exercises, which Seoul said would be the largest-ever in scale, are set to kick off in early March through April.

Seoul's military publicly said that this year's annual war games would be an exercise for attack against Pyongyang and its leadership, targeting top DPRK leader Kim Jong Un, according to local media reports. It was in a stark contrast to South Korea's earlier claims that the exercises with the United States are defensive in nature.

The JCS said in a Wednesday statement that if Pyongyang conducts provocations in defiance of Seoul's warnings, South Korea's military will make the DPRK forces bitterly regretting with stern retaliations as planned and prepared.

The Seoul command urged Pyongyang to immediately stop provocative acts leading the DPRK to destroy itself, saying that Pyongyang should be held completely responsible for all consequences coming from its reckless provocations.

It also warned that those provocations will only speed up the "collapse" of the DPRK's 'authoritarian' regime.

The word of "collapse," a taboo word in inter-Korean relations as well as in any diplomatic ties, was first mentioned by President Park Geun-hye during her special parliamentary speech on Feb. 16.

During the speech, Park cited top DPRK leader Kim Jong Un by his name several times without adding any of his official titles, calling the DPRK regime as a "reign of terror."

Park vowed to take stronger and more effective measures to create an environment forcing change in Pyongyang, saying that South Korea will never yield to DPRK provocations nor provide unconditional aid to it.

Her comments marked an about-turn in her policy toward the DPRK from a two-track policy with both dialogue and sanctions to a one-way policy only with restrictions toward weapons of mass destructions.

The DPRK conducted its fourth nuclear test on Jan. 6, the fourth of its nuclear detonations, and went ahead with a long-range rocket launch on Feb. 7, which outsiders view as a banned test of ballistic missile technology.

Three days after the rocket launch, Seoul announced a plan to stop operations at a jointly-run factory park in the DPRK's border city of Kaesong. Pyongyang responded a day later by shutting down the Kaesong Industrial Zone, freezing all South Korean assets there and expelling all South Korean workers.

The Kaesong was militarized by Pyongyang, and all of the remaining communication hotlines between Seoul and Pyongyang have been disconnected since then.

Since the South Korean president took office in February 2013 when the DPRK detonated its third atomic bomb, operations in the Kaesong industrial park had been suspended for five months from April 2013. After the cold era, President Park said in her New Year's speech in January 2014 that reunification with the DPRK will be a "bonanza" to the two Koreas and the world.

In March 2014, Park announced a peaceful reunification roadmap in Dresden, Germany, giving more shape to her signature "trust-building process on the Korean peninsula" policy toward Pyongyang. In May 2015, Park's government unveiled a plan to facilitate exchange and cooperation between the two Koreas.

Park's mentioning of "collapse" represented her 180-degree turn in DPRK policy toward sanctions and pressure in the wake of the DPRK's recent rocket launch and nuclear test.

The DPRK's official KCNA news agency published articles on Sunday, which denounced President Park with harsh languages. It called her "senile granny," "depraved wicked woman" and "traitor."

Later Sunday, Seoul's unification ministry issued a statement to express strong regrets over the DPRK articles, saying Pyongyang should immediately stop preposterous claims and vituperations and recognize a reality that South Korea and the international community are in cooperation to punish the DPRK's provocations with tougher sanctions. Enditem