NK escalates saber-rattling, threats against S.Korea

North Korea further escalated its saber-rattling and threats against South Korea and the world Friday in the wake of the United Nations Security Council`s unanimous adoption of a resolution imposing new and stronger sanctions on the communist state.

According to the official North Korean Central News Agency, its leader Kim Jong Un inspected coastal defense units on the North’s southernmost islets in the Yellow Sea early Thursday morning. The islets are close to South Korea’s frontline island of Yeonpyeong, which North Korea shelled in 2010.

After being briefed on targets on Yeonpyeong, the report said, Kim ordered troops on the islet of Jangjae to “deal a deadly blow to the enemy and blow up their positions if they fire even a single shell at their territorial waters or land." In a visit to the nearby islet of Mu, he urged “reinforced means of firepower strikes and targets” on five South Korean islets in the Yellow Sea, including Yeonpyeong, and “defined the order of precision strikes.”

Expressing satisfaction over the combat readiness postures on the islets, Kim also ordered his soldiers to “promptly deal a deadly counterblow to the enemy if a single shell is fired on their waters and land, where their sovereignty is exercised, and make the first gunfire and shoot a signal flare for a great war of national reunification.”

He was also quoted as saying the North`s 2010 shelling of Yeonpyeong was “the most satisfying” engagement since the 1953 armistice agreement that ended the Korean War was signed. He claimed that no North Korean soldier was killed or injured in the incident, but this is not true. North Korea`s military sustained significant damage from the South’s return fire.

North Korean media outlets also continued their provocative rhetoric. The Rodong Shinmun, the official daily of the North’s ruling Workers` Party, urged its people to “settle scores with the U.S. imperialists” and achieve national reunification while reporting on a mass rally Thursday in Pyongyang to support a statement by the supreme command of the North Korean military.

The Committee for the Peaceful Reunification of the Fatherland, a North Korean organization dealing with South Korean affairs, also said in a statement that the South Korean military will “pay the price” for provoking the North with a “catastrophe.” Citing South Korean military`s recent announcement on punishing North Korean commanders if Pyongyang commits another armed provocation, the committee condemned the South Korean government for committing a “rash act” of seeking to start an all-out war.

shcho@donga.com