Korea Threatens to Attack US over War Games in S. Korea

Pak Yong Sik, armed forces minister; Ri Myong Su, the new North Korean army’s chief of staff; Rim Kwang Il, first vice chief of the KPA General Staff attended.

Hong Kong’s Ming Pao daily last week also said that Chinese military could destroy the THAAD batteries deployed on the Korean Peninsula “within an hour”.

The diplomatic discussions took place prior to North Korea’s recent nuclear test and rocket launch that have further strained relations.

The U.S did push to include the nuclear program in the talks but did not make any specific demands regarding the weapons build-up by Pyongyang. “All of those things, in about five or six years, are going to be a more formidable problem”, Scaparrotti added.

The White House and State Department quickly scotched any notion that the Obama administration had been about to enter negotiations with Pyongyang before the January nuclear test. In an email to Reuters, State Department spokesman John Kirby declared: “To be clear, it was the North Koreans who proposed discussing a peace treaty”.

The North Korean military warned the USA and South Korea Tuesday to expect retaliations for their annual joint military drill in March.

But the senior USA official did suggest that the system might need to be considered unless China’s ally North Korea commits to denuclearization.

Beijing has been consistently wary of its placement in South Korea and has reacted especially sensitively toward the AN/TPY-2, a high-resolution rapidly deployable X-Band radar created to detect, track and identify ballistic missile threats at long distances and high altitudes.

The North and the USA agreed to an armistice, but not a peace treaty.

South Korea said that the measures are necessary to ensure safety from North Korea.

Earlier Wednesday, South Korea’s presidential spokesman expressed displeasure apparently at the Chinese envoy’s remarks on the missile system, saying, THAAD is a matter of “self-defense” against North Korea’s nuclear and missile threats.

However, the United States and South Korea recently postponed the start of talks on THAAD deployment, calling off a ceremony scheduled for Tuesday that would have seen both sides sign an agreement on the talks.

Qiu said the THAAD deployment could undo progress made between South Korea and China, claiming that the THAAD deployment greatly influences China’s national interests. However, China opposes the placement of the missiles in South Korea as it believes that the anti-missile system would also be used against Chinese and Russian interests.

South Korea and the United States have delayed the launch of formal talks on the THAAD deployment.