SEOUL — North Korea’s military put its “strategic” rocket units on a war footing Tuesday with a fresh threat to strike targets on the U.S. mainland, Hawaii and Guam, as well as South Korea.
The move came as South Korea marked the third anniversary of the sinking of its naval vessel Cheonan by what Seoul insists was a North Korean submarine.
“All artillery troops including strategic rocket units and long-range artillery units are to be placed under class-A combat readiness,” the Korean People’s Army (KPA) supreme command said in a statement. The units should be prepared to attack “all U.S. military bases in the Asia-Pacific region, including the U.S. mainland, Hawaii and Guam” and South Korea, said the statement carried by the Korean Central News Agency.
Despite a successful long-range rocket launch in December, most experts believe North Korea is years from developing a genuine inter-continental ballistic missile that could strike the mainland United States. Hawaii and Guam would also be outside the range of its medium-range missiles, which would be capable, however, of striking U.S. bases in South Korea and Japan.
North Korean leader Kim Jong-Un has spent the past few weeks touring frontline military units, monitoring live-fire artillery drills and making inflammatory speeches about wiping out the enemy. Saber-rattling and displays of brinkmanship are nothing new in the region, but there are concerns that the current situation is so volatile that one accidental step could escalate into serious conflict.
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