The South Korean president warned his northern counterpart of a strong military retaliation if nuclear weapons were to be used.
Kim Jong-un would risk the end of his regime if he were to use nuclear weapons against South Korea, South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol said. He was speaking to the military at an event marking the anniversary of the founding of the country’s armed forces. “If North Korea attempts to use nuclear weapons, it will face a resolute and overwhelming response from our military”Yoon said while addressing the 5,300 military personnel gathered at Seoul Air Base for the celebration. A military parade will take place in the center of the capital later Tuesday.
“This day will mark the end of the North Korean regime”he added, emphasizing the strength of the country’s security alliance with the United States, which stations tens of thousands of troops there. South Korea demonstrated for the first time its largest ballistic missile, the Hyunmoo-5, capable of destroying underground bunkers, South Korea’s Yonhap news agency reported.
The event was also marked by the flight of a Lancer B-1B, an American heavy bomber, again according to the Yonhap agency, a way of demonstrating the security alliance between Seoul and Washington. The North Korean army “will closely monitor frequent deployment” of these strategic means, declared Kin Kang Il, North Korean vice minister of defense, denouncing this deployment.
“Ready to completely defend” the country
The North Korean officer added that Pyongyang’s army was “fully ready to fully defend” the country. The South Korean president’s warning comes weeks after North Korea first released images of a uranium enrichment facility, showing leader Kim Jong Un touring the site.
South Korea’s spy agency later said the unprecedented revelation was “directed against the United States” and that North Korea was considered capable of producing dozens of nuclear weapons from its stockpile of highly enriched uranium and plutonium.
For the second year in a row, the South Korean government is organizing a military parade in Seoul’s central square, Gwanghwamun, attended by 3,000 people. Before that, the last military parades for Armed Forces Day were in 1984, under the dictatorial regime of Chun Doo-hwan
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