N. Korea threatens to strike back at US

Navy destroyer tailing ship off China's coast

June 22, 2009|Jae-Soon Chang, Associated Press

SEOUL - North Korea boasted that it has become a “proud nuclear power’’ and threatened today to harm the United States if attacked, as tensions mounted over a possible crackdown on exports of suspected missile parts from the North.

President Obama said the United States is ready to cope with “any contingencies’’ involving North Korea and vowed not to “reward belligerence and provocation.’’

South Korea’s YTN news network reported that a US Navy destroyer was tailing a North Korean ship suspected of carrying missiles and related parts toward Burma in what could be the first test of new UN sanctions against the North over its recent nuclear test.

The sanctions toughen an earlier arms embargo against North Korea and authorize ship searches in an attempt to thwart its nuclear and ballistic missile programs.

Tensions on the Korean peninsula have spiked since North Korea defiantly conducted its second nuclear explosion May 25. It later declared it would expand its atomic bomb program and threatened war to protest the UN sanctions imposed in response to its nuclear test.

The North’s main Rodong Sinmun newspaper said today that it is “nonsense’’ to say the country threatens the United States and contended it is Washington that threatens the North. The paper also warned that the country is prepared to strike back if attacked.

“As long as our country has become a proud nuclear power, the United States should take a correct look at whom it is dealing with,’’ the paper said. “It would be a grave mistake for the United States to think it can remain unhurt if it ignites the fuse of war on the Korean peninsula.’’

North Korea says its nuclear program is a deterrent against the United States, which it routinely accuses of plotting to topple its communist regime. The United States, which has 28,500 troops in South Korea, has repeatedly said it has no such intention and has no nuclear weapons there.

Obama said the United States is prepared for any North Korean provocation, including the regime’s reported threat to test-launch a long-range missile toward Hawaii.

Japanese media have reported that the North Koreans appear to be preparing for a long-range test timed for about July 4. Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates has ordered additional protections for Hawaii in case a missile is launched over the Pacific Ocean.

“This administration - and our military is fully prepared for any contingencies,’’ Obama said Friday during an interview with CBS News’ Harry Smith, to air today on “The Early Show.’’

“I don’t want to speculate on hypotheticals,’’ Obama said. “But I want . . . to give assurances to the American people that the t’s are crossed and the i’s are dotted in terms of what might happen.’’