North Korea terms US-South Korea joint exercises as "a maneuver for a nuclear war" and warns of "merciless retaliation"; South Korea to deploy 60-70 anti-submarine guided missiles on destroyers by 2012
  • Share
  • Tweet
  • Email
  • Whatsapp
  • Linkedin
  • Print
  • North Korea charged that an upcoming South Korea-US military exercise was "a maneuver for a nuclear war" and warned that it will react with "merciless retaliation." South Korea and the US are to stage the ‘Ulji Freedom Guardian‘ exercise from August 17-27. Pyongyang has typically criticized such joint exercises as intended for war preparation, while Seoul and Washington have been insisting that they are purely defensive in nature1.

    South Korea's defense ministry, after a meeting on mid-term arms procurement plans, stated that the newly developed anti-submarine guided torpedoes/missiles will be deployed on its destroyers by 2012 to beef up the country's naval defences. These destroyers will carry about 60-70 of these ‘Red Shark’ missiles2.

    Indian authorities detained a North Korean vessel, the cargo ship, M V San, and searched it for radioactive material. This was the first time that a North Korean vessel has been seized and boarded under the terms of the sanctions adopted by the UN Security Council in June after North Korea tested a nuclear device in May. The Indian military stated that the ship had anchored without authorization in the Andaman and Nicobar Islands, a territory of India in the Bay of Bengal3.

    Top