North Korea has threatened that interfering with the satellite it plans to launch will lead to war.
The Korean Central News Agency said “ Shooting our satellite for peaceful purposes will precisely mean a war. ” It added: “We will retaliate any act of intercepting our satellite for peaceful purposes with prompt counter-strikes by the most powerful military means.” Sources believe that North Korea is planning to test-fire a long-range missile under the pretense of a satellite launch.
Since the United States and South Korea military exercises began, the North has put its 1.2 person military on full combat alert and cut off communications with the South. It also released a statement last Friday saying that because of the military exercises the safety of commercial flights flying through airspace at its east coast could no longer be assured.
The new U.S. envoy to North Korea, Stephen Bosworth, said any launch by North Korea would be very ill-advised. A South Korea’s defence ministry spokesman said that the threats were just rhetoric although the armed forces was prepared to deal with it should any conflicts arise.The annual military exercise between the two involves about 50,000 U.S. and South Korean troops.