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N. Korean leader watches 'drone' attack drill: KCNA
by Staff Writers
Seoul (AFP) March 20, 2013


N. Korea threatens action over B-52 bomber flights
Seoul (AFP) March 20, 2013 - North Korea on Wednesday condemned training flights by nuclear-capable US B-52 bombers over the Korean peninsula as an "unpardonable provocation" and threatened military action if they continue.

The Pentagon says at least one B-52 has flown over South Korea in recent weeks as part of joint South Korea-US military exercises that Pyongyang has denounced as rehearsals for invasion.

"It is an unpardonable provocation," a North Korean foreign ministry spokesman said in a statement carried by the official Korean Central News Agency (KCNA).

"The US is introducing a strategic nuclear strike means to the Korean peninsula at a time when its situation is inching close to the brink of war," the spokesman said.

Military tensions on the Korean peninsula are at their highest level for years, with North Korea -- angered by UN sanctions imposed after its nuclear test last month -- threatening a second Korean War backed by nuclear weapons.

The foreign ministry said Pyongyang was closely watching the ongoing exercises and vowed a "strong military counteraction, should the strategic bomber make such a sortie to the peninsula again".

Pentagon spokesman George Little said Monday that a B-52 from Andersen Air Force base in Guam flew over South Korea on March 8.

South Korea's Yonhap news agency reported that another B-52 sortie was carried out Tuesday.

B-52s have taken part in annual exercises on the peninsula before, but Little said the Pentagon wanted to underline their use this time given the heightened tensions.

The flights should be seen as underscoring US commitment and capacity to defend Seoul against an attack from the North, Little said.

That message was echoed in Seoul on Monday by visiting Deputy Defense Secretary Ashton Carter, who promised to provide South Korea with every available military resource "offered by the US nuclear umbrella".

North Korean leader Kim Jong-Un oversaw a live fire military drill using drones and cruise missile interceptors, state media said Wednesday, amid heightened tensions on the Korean peninsula.

The official Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) said Kim had personally guided the exercise that involved training attacks by "super-precision drone planes".

It did not specify the timing or location of the drill, which came a week after Kim presided over a live-fire artillery exercise near the disputed sea border with South Korea.

Military tensions on the Korean peninsula are at their highest level for years, with North Korea -- angered by UN sanctions imposed after its nuclear test last month -- threatening a second Korean War backed by nuclear weapons.

Pyongyang has also denounced ongoing joint South Korea-US military manoeuvres, involving nuclear-capable B-52 bombers, calling them a provocative rehearsal for invasion.

The North Korean drones used in the exercise were assigned flight paths and timings "with targets in South Korea in mind", KCNA quoted Kim as saying.

North Korea has no confirmed drone capability, although South Korea's Yonhap news agency reported last year that it was developing unmanned strike aircraft using old US target drones imported from the Middle East.

Still photographs of the exercise broadcast on state television seemed to show what looked like a rudimentary drone being flown into a mountainside target and exploding.

The exercise also included tests of small rockets that KCNA said were capable of bringing down cruise missiles.

Last month the South Korean military released video footage of a newly deployed cruise missile that it said could carry out high precision strikes on command centres anywhere in North Korea.

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