North Korea has once again threatened to strike Hawaii, Guam and the US mainland after ordering its artillery and strategic rocket units to be on combat-ready status.
“All artillery troops including strategic rocket units and long-range artillery units are to be placed under class-A combat readiness,” the Korean People’s Army (KPA) supreme command said in a Tuesday statement.
The statement added that the units should be prepared to attack “all US military bases in the Asia-Pacific region, including the US mainland, Hawaii and Guam” and South Korea.
The army’s announcement came days after Seoul and Washington signed a new military pact in response to what they called even low-level provocations by Pyongyang.
Just a few days before the pact was signed, North Korea had threatened to attack American military bases in Japan and Guam to retaliate recent training missions by American B-52 bombers over South Korea.
The Pentagon has said at least one B-52 bomber had flown over South Korea during the recent joint US-South Korea military exercises. It added that it has publicized its flight to underline US alliance with its ally South Korea.
Seoul and Washington launched the week-long annual joint military exercises on March 11 near the Korean Peninsula despite warnings from Pyongyang. The drills involved 10,000 South Korean soldiers and about 3,000 US troops.
North Korea, however, condemned the maneuvers as a launch pad for a “nuclear war.” Pyongyang cut off its communication hotline with Seoul as the drills kicked off, while announcing that it had scrapped the 1953 armistice and peace pacts signed with Seoul in protest at the maneuvers.