Pyongyang Threatens To Wipe Out S Korean Govt -- Today
North Korea threatened yesterday to wipe out the South’s government in a furious response a day after a Seoul official said Pyongyang must disappear soon, in an escalation of rhetoric between the rivals.
The North’s powerful National Defence Commission called Seoul’s comments an intolerable provocation that showed the South wants to take over the North.
It said in a statement that Pyongyang would launch all-out, merciless strikes to wipe out every last person in South Korean President Park Geun-hye’s government.
South Korean Defence Ministry spokesman Kim Min-seok said on Monday that the North was not a real country and existed for the benefit of only one person — a reference to its leader, Mr Kim Jong-un. He added that the North has no human rights or public freedoms.
The spokesman’s comments followed a series of slurs by Pyongyang against South Korean and United States leaders. North Korea’s media likened Ms Park to an “old prostitute” and US President Barack Obama to a “monkey” in recent dispatches.
The South Korean Defence Ministry said the North’s military had not undertaken any suspicious activities. A ministry official said Seoul is always ready to repel any provocation by Pyongyang.
South Korea has been highly critical of the North’s nuclear and missile programmes, including recent rocket and missile launches as well as apparent preparations for a fourth nuclear test, but the comments from Seoul on Monday were stronger than usual.
South Korea tries to avoid publicly talking about anything that can be interpreted as a collapse of Pyongyang’s government due to worries that the North would raise tensions.
South Korea called the North’s verbal insults against Ms Park immoral and unacceptable, while the US described Pyongyang’s racist slurs against Mr Obama as “disgusting”.
