TOKYO, March 31 (Itar-Tass) – No increase in military activities was registered in North Korea on Sunday despite Pyongyang’s warnings that the Korean Peninsula was entering “a state of war,” South Korea’s media sources have reported with reference to that country’s Defence Ministry.
No movement of divisions of the Korean People’s Army has been registered so far.
According to a special joint statement of the North Korea government published on Saturday, “the long-standing situation of the Korean Peninsula being neither at peace nor at war is finally over.” “As of now, inter-Korea relations enter a state of war.”
South Korea’s Defence Ministry promised to give a worthy response to Pyongyang’s actions in case of new provocations noting that “the armed forces are on full alert.”
Pyongyang’s statements cannot go unnoticed by the world community.
Russia’s Foreign Ministry expressed the hope that “all sides will demonstrate maximal responsibility and restraint and nobody will cross the dangerous line beyond which there is not return.”
“Everybody seeks to prevent the situation from getting beyond the politico-diplomatic bounds,” the ministry said. “Moscow maintains contacts with partners in the six-party talks.”
Germany, France and Great Britain called on North Korea to refrain from new provocations against South Korea, while the United States announced that it takes these threats seriously and remains in close contact with South Korean allies.
On Friday North Korea leader Kim Jong-un as the commander-in-chief signed “the final plan for the technical preparation of the strategic missile troops to carry out a strike against military bases on the continental part of the United States, in Guam and Hawaii and in South Korea in case of an enemy provocation”.
Such measures had been taken after two strategic bombers B-2 of the U.S. Air Force hit training targets on South Korea’s firing range on March 28 within the framework of the ongoing training series Fowl Eagle that started on March 1 and will last until April 30.
The situation on the Korean Peninsula escalated after North Korea’s satellite launch last December and its third nuclear test in February.
In response to these moves the UN Security Council adopted two resolutions expanding sanctions against Pyongyang. North Korea’s Foreign Ministry said it would not recognize these “criminal” documents approved under the pressure of the United States as depriving North Korea of its right to self-defence and civilian space exploration.