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N. Korea threatens nuclear strikes over South-US military drills

– ‘Flames and ashes’ –

“If we push the buttons to annihilate the enemies even right now, all bases of provocations will be reduced to seas in flames and ashes in a moment,” the statement added.

Despite a pair of successful long-range rocket launches, most experts believe North Korea is years away from developing a genuine inter-continental ballistic missile (ICBM) capable of reaching the US mainland.

In Seoul, the defence ministry cautioned the North against acting out its bellicose rhetoric.

“If North Korea launches a provocation, our military will respond sternly and mercilessly,” ministry spokesman Moon Sang-Gyun told reporters.

Pyongyang has long condemned the Foal Eagle and Key Resolve exercises, which stretch over nearly two months, as provocative rehearsals for invasion, while Seoul and Washington insist they are purely defensive in nature.

The North’s threat of a nuclear response appeared to have been prompted, in part, by South Korean media reports that this year’s drills would role play surgical strikes against key North Korean nuclear and missile facilities.

The scale of the exercises was ramped up following the North’s fourth nuclear test on January 6 and February’s rocket launch, which was seen as a disguised ballistic missile test.

– Tough UN sanctions –

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A UN Security Council resolution adopted last week laid out the toughest sanctions imposed on Pyongyang to date over its nuclear weapons programme.

It breaks new ground by targeting specific sectors key to the North Korean economy and seeking to undermine the North’s use of, and access to, international transport systems.

The Philippines has already seized a North Korean cargo ship which was among 31 listed by the resolution as banned from international ports.

Pyongyang has rejected the sanctions as “unfair, illicit and immoral” and vowed to keep building its nuclear arsenal.

South Korea is set to unveil further unilateral sanctions against the North on Tuesday — a move that is likely to draw further threats of retaliation from Pyongyang.

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