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Jung Yeon-Je / AFP - Getty Images
South Korean soldiers patrol along a fence in Paju near the Demilitarized Zone dividing the two Koreas Friday.
SEOUL — North Korea threatened Friday to attack rival South Korea if Seoul joined a new round of tightened U.N. sanctions, saying it would regard this as "a declaration of war."
The reclusive North has this week declared a boycott of all dialogue aimed at ending its nuclear program and vowed to conduct more rocket and nuclear tests after the U.N. Security Council censured it for a December long-range missile launch.
On Thursday, Washington unveiled more of its own economic restrictions following Pyongyang's rocket launch last month.
Friday brought a third straight day of fiery rhetoric from the isolated communist state, this time directed against South Korea.
"'Sanctions' mean a war and a declaration of war against us," the North said.
"If the puppet group of traitors takes a direct part in the U.N. 'sanctions,' the DPRK [North Korea] will take strong physical counter-measures against it," the North's Committee for the Peaceful Reunification of Korea said, referring to the South.
The committee is the North's front for dealings with the South. DPRK is short for the North's official name, the Democratic People's Republic of Korea.
The U.N. Security Council unanimously condemned North Korea's December rocket launch on Tuesday and expanded existing U.N. sanctions.
On Thursday, the United States slapped economic sanctions on two North Korean bank officials and a Hong Kong trading company that it accused of supporting Pyongyang's proliferation of weapons of mass destruction.
The company, Leader (Hong Kong) International Trading Ltd, was separately blacklisted by the United Nations on Wednesday.
Seoul has said it will look at whether there are any further sanctions that it can implement alongside the United States, but said the focus for now is to follow Security Council resolutions.
The resolution said the council "deplores the violations" by North Korea of its previous resolutions, which banned Pyongyang from conducting further ballistic missile and nuclear tests and from importing materials and technology for those programs. It does not impose new sanctions on Pyongyang.
San Francisco in range?
The United States had wanted to punish North Korea for the rocket launch with a Security Council resolution that imposed entirely new sanctions against Pyongyang, but Beijing rejected that option. China agreed to U.N. sanctions against Pyongyang after North Korea's 2006 and 2009 nuclear tests.
North Korea's rhetoric this week amounted to some of the angriest outbursts against the outside world coming under the leadership of Kim Jong Un, who took over after the death of his father Kim Jong Il in late 2011.
Elizabeth Dalziel / AP
From work to play, see pictures from inside the secretive country.
On Thursday, the North said it would carry out further rocket launches and a nuclear test, directing its ire at the United States, a country it called its "sworn enemy."
U.S. Defense Secretary Leon Panetta said the comments were worrying.
"We are very concerned with North Korea's continuing provocative behavior," he said at a Pentagon news conference. "We are fully prepared ... to deal with any kind of provocation from the North Koreans. But I hope in the end that they determine that it is better to make a choice to become part of the international family."
North Korea is not believed to have the technology to deliver a nuclear warhead capable of hitting the continental United States, although its December launch showed it had the capacity to deliver a rocket that could travel 6,200 miles, potentially putting San Francisco in range, according to an intelligence assessment by South Korea.
The foreign ministry of China, the North's sole remaining major diplomatic and economic benefactor, repeated its call for calm on the Korean peninsula at its daily briefing on Friday.
"We hope all relevant parties can see the big picture, maintain calm and restraint, further maintain contact and dialogue, and improve relations, while not taking actions to further complicate and escalate the situation," spokesman Hong Lei said.
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Gotta get some Twinkies back in production, or this guy 's gonna really flip out.
"But diplomats and other observers have believed North Korea was embarking on the path toward such a detonation since last March, when, just two weeks after making a deal to receive humanitarian aid from the U.S., it announced plans to launch a rocket, in violation of international bans against it."
Were Obama and Hillary so foolish that they did not include a provision in this "deal" that rendered it null and void if Kim Boy detonated another bomb or tested another missile?
Time for us to get really down and dirty - shut off Kim Fat Wad's imported supply of wine, porno movies and hair grease. Will have him really squealing like a pig with a hot iron up his rear! Matter of fact, not a bad idea what to do with him - if you rendered him down for grease, you could probably feed half the North Koreans the rest of this winter.
It is unfortunate that the North Korean leadership keeps their people in the dark, keeping them forever ignorant and fostering hatred towards western civilization. However, Leon Panetta said it right, we are more than capable of handling them. Start taking pictures now folks, at this rate North Koreans will become a critically endangered species.
No add, no food for peace, no nothing. Let them starve and make sure they know that we have hundred nukes aimed at then, and we know ours work.
cut the food supply off the whole state will fall enuff said
There is widespread famine there. Please educate yourself
Let's just get this over with and call his bluff. I hope the USA jacks up more sanctions unilaterally to torment the North Koreans. This country's whining is getting defining and they deserve to be back-handed promptly.
I actually hope they attempt to go to war.
I'd like an excuse to turn N. Korea into a nuclear parking lot.
The problem with that is a possible wider nuclear war with China involved; not a pretty picture. Not advocating or negating an attack by Allies, but just considering the consequences...
Is it clear now that the North Koreans alternate between laughable bluster and overtures of compromise in order to play for more time? And that a bipartisan series of dummy US presidents has been letting them get away with it for twenty years?
Now there is a TRIPLE oxymoron for you. They are neither Democratc OR a Republic and they CERTAINLY are not for the people.
Heh, even the US does not know what a Republic is any longer.
Too bad when the North Korean forces charge into the South and see that people don't eat dog food and live in death camps they'll instantly defect
Correct me if I am wrong but since NK and SK are still "technically" at war and we are SK ally, then NK is technically still at war with us. So if Obama decides to level NK he can not technically be blamed for starting a war. Does that sound correct?
North Korea is funny. They couldn't even beat Hussein in a war. But let's go ahead and kick their asses this time. We need more practice.
North Korea reminds me of a spoiled brat in serious need of a trip to the woodshed.
South Korea and the US are just the right parties to administer deserved and overdue punishment, Do we wait for an attack, or move first? That's the question of the century in this case. N. Korea has threatened both South Korea and the US with nuclear missiles, a huge mistake on their part.
At last check, we have 36,000 ICBMs. DROP 1500 OF THEM RIGHT NOW!!!! Nuke the government, government assets, and kill all of the politicians. VAPORIZE this @!$%#HOLE and any civilian supporting it!
DO IT NOW!!
Looks like both sides of the globe are about ready to explode. Maybe the Mayans were right after all; the world may be coming to a finale soon. Certainly, the fools in charge now have no clue what to do to defuse things.
If they don't even acknowledge that they're still officially at war, then the inevitable has happened and I take this type of talk even less seriously.
http://empiricalmag.blogspot.com/
Hey North Diarrhea, go for it. South Korea is shakin' in their boots at all your threats.
Just add one more threat to the list.
A declaration of war? They've BEEN at war for more than 60 years now! This isn't peacetime, it's merely a cease fire. North Korea needs a history lesson about their own actions and statements, not on some old guy who rode a unicorn...
I can't believe how anxious you all are to jump into another war when we are almost out of the last 2. This is much more of a problem for China than anyone (except for S Korea of course). This little short fluck is trying to be a relevant person in the world when his people can't even eat but he's building another rocket. Fortunately their technology is about 40 years old and there is nothing they've got we can't defend against like swatting a fly. The DMZ is solid and we have plenty of Marines and Navy defending the South Koreans. Japan and other countries in the area are naturally alert to the danger but know we have their backs and we have beefed up our Navy assets in the area to guarantee that.
How would you like to be the new Sec of State, Sec of Defense and new CIA chief walking into this one your first day...??? Welcome to your new jobs-put on your seat belts and put your tray tables away and your seats in their locked and upright positions...lol
"We hope all relevant parties can see the big picture, maintain calm and restraint, further maintain contact and dialogue, and improve relations, while not taking actions to further complicate and escalate the situation," spokesman Hong Lei said.
Wake up China. There is only one side threatening nuclear war and trying to escalate the situation. Time for you to wake up.
Good to see Kim Jong Un is keeping up the traditions of his late father, the unlamented Kim Jong Il (now Kim Jong Dead).
Threaten your neighbors. Impoverish your people, and be sure to have a totally unnecessary weapons program.
Must be something in the water north of the 38th parallel.
I'll say one thing for North Korea, they will never have a Muslim problem.
If we had not blown our load in Iraq we could consider regime change where it's truly needed.
History is replete with failed empires and societies that come to believe their own BS mainly due to their self imposed isolation. Looks like North Korea is headed down that road. Reminds me of that Japanese Admiral who looked at his sailors who were dancing and laughing over their just completed attack on Pearl Harbor. He admonished them, 'I'm afraid we have awakened a sleeping giant'.....boy, was he right! Same with North Korea....they would not last one day if they attacked either South Korea or the United States directly. They don't have the size, resources, technology, capacity...you name it to do anything except hold 'goose-step' marches and wave banners. It's comical! The poor boobs don't even know what total azzes they are making of themselves before the world.
Hey. I understand sword rattling, but wake up North Korea. You wake up one night to sounds of explosions and the next morning your entire infrastructure is gone. No power, no rockets, no bridges, no intranet, no cell phones, no nothing. Join the 21st century before its too late.