[Iran Press TV Latest] As the US and South Korea prepare to hold a joint military exercise in the Korean peninsula, North Korea has vowed to give a crushing response to any US-led act of war. North Korea's Defense Minister Kim Yong-Chun said on Sunday that the North's army is ready for 'unimaginably deadly blows' to the US and South Korea if they attack the communist state. "We will deal unimaginably deadly blows at the US imperialists and the South Korean puppets if they ignite a war, obsessed with a foolish ambition", Kim warned during a public meeting held on the eve of the anniversary of the armistice that ended the 1950-53 Korean War.
The 10-day long US-South Korean maneuver is scheduled to take place on August 17-27. It will involve '10,000 US soldiers and an unspecified number' of South Korean troops. Pyongyang regularly claims such exercises to be preparations for a US invasion of North Korea.
The North Korean minister also said that Pyongyang would retaliate against tough new UN sanctions imposed on the communist nation following its missile and nuclear tests. "We will mercilessly and resolutely counter the enemy's sanctions with retaliation, it's all-out war with all-out war," Kim said.
After North Korea conducted a nuclear test on May 25, the United Nations Security Council voted for a new round of sanctions against Pyongyang, including an expanded arms embargo and beefed up inspections of air, sea and land shipments going to and from North Korea.