N.Korea slams US for escalating military threat

North Korea on Thursday slammed the US for escalating military threat, the state-run KCNA news agency said.

The US and South Korean military officials "openly stated that it will concentrate its latest strategic assets on the vicinity of the Korean peninsula in an explicit manifestation of its intention to carry out an armed attack on North Korea", KCNA quoted a Foreign Ministry spokesman as saying.

He added that the military threats included the US dispatching two of its B-1B strategic bombers into the air above the Korean peninsula to conduct aerial bombardment drills for 10 hours as well as waging a drill simulating the interception of North Korea's ballistic missile and the deployment of additional THAAD launchers in South Korea, reports Xinhua news agency.

The July 28 launch of the intercontinental ballistic missile Hwasong-14 by North Korea "was meant to send a stern warning to the US", the spokesman said, adding "Unfortunately, the US still thinks that its military bluff would work."

Any form of military threat or blackmail by the US can never scare North Korea and on the contrary, it will only redouble the resolve of the Korean army and people to annihilate the enemy," he added.

--IANS

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