North Korea said on Tuesday that any move to shoot down one of its test missiles would be considered a declaration of war.
Kim Yo Jong, the sister of influential leader Kim Jong Un, warned in a statement that Pyongyang would consider it a “declaration of war” if the United States took military action once morest North Korea’s strategic weapons tests.
It also hinted that North Korea might launch more missiles into the Pacific Ocean, according to the official KCNA news agency.
“The Pacific is not under the sovereignty of the United States or Japan,” Kim added.
The United States and its allies have never shot down any of North Korea’s ballistic missiles, which are banned by the UN Security Council.
Analysts said that if North Korea continued its threat to turn the Pacific Ocean into a “shooting range”, it would allow the isolated, nuclear-armed country to make technological advances as well as assert its military strength.
joint exercises
In a separate statement, the head of the North Korean Foreign Ministry’s Foreign News Department accused the US of “escalating” the situation by conducting joint air exercises using B-52 bombers on Monday and planning field exercises between the US and South Korea.
The United States deployed B-52 bombers to conduct joint exercises with South Korean fighter jets, in what the South Korean Defense Ministry described as a show of force once morest North Korea’s nuclear and missile threats.
The two countries will hold the large-scale military exercises, known as the “Freedom Shield” exercises, starting next week and lasting for more than ten days.
About 28,500 US troops are deployed in South Korea in the followingmath of the 1950-53 Korean War, which ended in an armistice rather than a peace treaty, leaving the two countries technically at war.
