(SEOUL) North Korea on Monday threatened to shoot down US spy planes that violate its airspace, while condemning Washington’s plan to deploy a ballistic missile submarine near the Korean peninsula.
According to a spokesperson for the North Korean Ministry of Defense, the United States has “intensified its espionage activities beyond wartime level”, referring to American spy planes which carried out several flights in July, described as of “provocateurs”, over eight consecutive days.
A reconnaissance aircraft, he said, also “several times” entered North Korea’s airspace over the Sea of Japan.
In a statement quoted by the state news agency KCNA, the spokesperson warned of the risk of “accident” that this type of action could have caused, such as the “fall of the US Air Force strategic reconnaissance aircraft” in the Sea of Japan.
The spokesperson referred to previous incidents, in which Pyongyang has already shot down American planes. He also warned Washington that his espionage activities would not be without consequences.
The statement also condemned the planned US deployment of strategic resources to South Korea, which Pyongyang called “the least concealed nuclear blackmail” exerted on North Korea, and claimed that it constituted a serious threat to regional and global security.
Washington, in accordance with a declaration signed in April with Seoul, had notably declared that a ballistic missile submarine would make its first docking in South Korea for decades, without specifying the date.
Relations between the two Koreas are at their lowest. North Korean leader Kim Jong-un called Pyongyang’s nuclear power status “irreversible” last year and called for increased development of armaments, including tactical nuclear weapons.
In response, Seoul and Washington promised that Pyongyang would face a nuclear response and the “end” of its current government if it decided to use atomic weapons against them.
This year, North Korea has conducted a series of weapons tests despite sanctions, including testing its most powerful intercontinental ballistic missiles.