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 North
Korea warns against U.S., South Korea military exercises
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[February 24, 2016]
SEOUL (Reuters) - North Korea warned
on Tuesday of harsh retaliation against South Korea and its ally the
United States, which are preparing for annual joint military exercises
next month amid heightened tensions following the North's nuclear test
and rocket launch.
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 The North calls the annual exercises preparations for war and
routinely vows to retaliate.
"All the powerful strategic and tactical strike means of our
revolutionary armed forces will go into preemptive and just
operation to beat back the enemy forces to the last man if there is
a slight sign of their special operation forces and equipment moving
to carry out the so-called 'beheading operation' and 'high-density
strike,'" the Supreme Command of the Korean People's Army said in a
statement carried by state media.
It said its first target would be South Korea's presidential Blue
House, while U.S. military bases in Asia and on the U.S. mainland
would be its secondary targets. About 28,500 U.S. troops are based
in South Korea.
Last week, South Korean President Park Geun-hye warned of tough
measures against the North following its January nuclear test and
its long-range rocket launch this month, saying Pyongyang's pursuit
of nuclear weapons would speed the collapse of the regime.
South Korea and the United States say both actions were violations
of U.N. Security Council resolutions, and are pushing for further
sanctions.
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Days after the rocket launch, South Korea suspended the operation of
the Kaesong industrial zone just north of the border, which had been
run jointly with the North for more than a decade.
Isolated North Korea and the rich, democratic South are still
technically at war after their 1950-53 conflict ended in a truce,
not a treaty.
(Reporting by Tony Munroe and Ju-min Park; Editing by Nick Macfie)
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