N. Korea warns Seoul to cancel military drill
Russia expresses 'extreme concern' over South's live-firing exercise
SEOUL, South Korea — North Korea said on Friday it would strike again at the South if a live-firing drill planned by Seoul on a disputed island went ahead, with an even stronger response than last month's shelling that killed four people.
North Korean official news agency KCNA said the "intensity and scope" of its retaliation will be worse if the Seoul goes through with its announced one-day live-fire drills sometime between Saturday and Tuesday on Yeonpyeong Island.
The North said the planned drills were an attempt "to save the face of the South Korean military, which met a disgraceful fiasco" during last month's clash.
The North responded to similar South Korean drills on Nov. 23 by raining artillery shells on the tiny fishing community near the Koreas' disputed sea border.
The South has said the drills are part of "routine, justified" exercises. Representatives of the U.N. Command that oversees the armistice that ended the Korean War will observe the drills.
Later on Friday, Russia's foreign ministry summoned the South Korean and U.S. ambassadors to express "extreme concern" over the drill.
Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Alexei Borodavkin met with the envoys and "insistently urged the Republic of Korea and the United States to refrain from conducting the planned firing," the ministry said in a statement.
Crew members watch as an F/A-18E Super Hornet lands on the deck of the aircraft carrier USS George Washington during a naval exercise with South Korea in the Yellow Sea on Tuesday, Nov. 30. The drills come amid heightened tension in the region after a North Korean artillery attack on South Korea's Yeonpyeong island last week. (Park Ji-hwan / AFP - Getty Images)
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North Korea's Missile Could Hit US
Taepodong-2 missiles puts Alaska, Hawaii and parts of the West Coast of the US within range
February 23, 2009
BBC
"If the U.S. imperialists start another war, the army and people of Korea will ... wipe out the aggressors on the globe once and for all," the official Korean Central News Agency said.
The warning came on the eve of the 59th anniversary of the start of the three-year Korean War, which ended in a truce in 1953, not a peace treaty, leaving the peninsula in state of war.
The U.S. has 28,500 troops in South Korea to protect against an outbreak of hostilities.
North Korea is believed to have more than 800 ballistic missiles, including long-range missiles which could one day strike the US. The BBC looks at Pyongyang's missile programme, which has mainly been developed from the Scud missile.
North Korea first obtained tactical missiles from the Soviet Union as early as 1969, but its first Scuds reportedly came via Egypt in 1976.
Egypt is believed to have supplied North Korea with Scud-B missiles and designs in return for its support against Israel in the Yom Kippur War.
See the possible range of North Korea's missiles
By 1984, North Korea was building its own Scud-Bs and developed two new versions, the Scud-C and Scud-D. It has since developed a medium-range missile, the Nodong, and a long-range missile based on Scud technology, the Taepodong.
In July 2006 it test-fired a modification to the Taepodong, called the Taepodong-2, which experts say could have a range of up to 6,000km (3,500 miles). The missile failed shortly after launch.
