Jack Kim,
Kiyoshi Takenaka
SEOUL/TOKYO
(Reuters) - A North Korean state
agency threatened on Thursday to use
nuclear weapons to “sink” Japan and
reduce the United States to “ashes
and darkness” for supporting a U.N.
Security Council resolution and
sanctions over its latest nuclear
test.
The Korea
Asia-Pacific Peace Committee, which
handles the North’s external ties
and propaganda, also called for the
breakup of the Security Council,
which it called “a tool of evil”
made up of “money-bribed” countries
that move at the order of the United
States.
“The four
islands of the archipelago should be
sunken into the sea by the nuclear
bomb of Juche. Japan is no longer
needed to exist near us,” the
committee said in a statement
carried by the North’s official KCNA
news agency.
Juche is the
North’s ruling ideology that mixes
Marxism and an extreme form of
go-it-alone nationalism preached by
state founder Kim Il Sung, the
grandfather of the current leader,
Kim Jong Un.
Regional
tension has risen markedly since the
reclusive North conducted its sixth,
and by far its most powerful,
nuclear test on Sept. 3, following a
series of missile tests, including
one that flew over Japan.
The 15-member
Security Council voted unanimously
on a U.S.-drafted resolution and a
new round of sanctions on Monday in
response, banning North Korea’s
textile exports that are the second
largest only to coal and mineral,
and capping fuel supplies.
The North
reacted to the latest action by the
Security Council, which had the
backing of veto-holding China and
Russia, by reiterating threats to
destroy the United States, Japan and
South Korea.
“Let’s reduce
the U.S. mainland into ashes and
darkness. Let’s vent our spite with
mobilization of all retaliation
means which have been prepared till
now,” the statement said.
Japan’s Nikkei
stock index and dollar/yen currency
pared gains, although traders said
that was more because of several
Chinese economic indicators released
on Thursday rather than a reaction
to the North’s latest statement.
South Korea’s
won also edged down around the same
time over domestic financial
concerns.
http://www.reuters.com/article/us-northkorea-missiles/north-korea-threatens-to-sink-japan-reduce-u-s-to-ashes-and-darkness-idUSKCN1BP0F3