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S. Korea warns retaliation against DPRK's threat to strike

Xinhua, March 23, 2016 Adjust font size:

South Korea on Wednesday warned of stern and merciless retaliations in response to the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK)'s threat to strike South Korea's presidential office.

Seoul's unification ministry said in a statement that if Pyongyang conducts any provocations, South Korean forces will sternly and mercilessly retaliate and all the consequences from it will be completely held responsible for the DPRK.

The statement came after the DPRK's Committee for the Peaceful Reunification of Korea (CPRK) warned that the DPRK's armed forces will head to wage a retaliatory battle to eliminate South Korean President Park Geun-hye's administration.

The CPRK said that the strikes may start from the presidential office Cheong Wa Dae or nearby locations, noting that once the buttons of large-caliber multiple rocket launchers are pushed, the presidential office would be reduced to a sea in flames and ashes.

Top DPRK leader Kim Jong Un guided the test-firing of the new large-caliber multiple rocket launchers on Monday, the second time he has watched the test firing of the newly developed rocket launching system in a month. Kim had ordered continued tests of a nuclear warhead and ballistic missiles capable of carrying the warhead to enhance nuclear attack capability.

Kim's order came as South Korea and the United States kicked off their joint annual war games, which the DPRK denounced as a dress rehearsal for northward invasion, on March 7. The Key Resolve command post exercise ended last Friday, but the Foal Eagle field training exercise will last until April 30.

Seoul urged Pyongyang to immediately stop such "nasty and shallow-minded" acts, saying that it warns against the DPRK for threatening terrorist attacks on the head of state and the Cheong Wa Dae.

The unification ministry said South Korea can never condone the DPRK's nuclear test and long-range missile launch threatening peace in the world and on the Korean Peninsula that was followed by continued insults to the head of state in defiance of Seoul's repeated warnings.

The ministry urged the DPRK to give up nuclear and missile programs to come to a right path for a change, saying that the DPRK's threats to South Korea will never solve the DPRK's problems. Endit