North Korea threatens military strike against South Korea

October 4th, 2009 SKorea refuses North's demand to return defectorsSEOUL, South Korea — North Korea has demanded South Korea repatriate a group of 11 North Koreans who defected by sea last week, but the South does not intend to return them, the Unification Ministry said Sunday. The 11 crossed into southern waters off the divided peninsula's east coast aboard a small barge early Thursday evening.

October 4th, 2009 North Korea demands SKorea return 11 defectorsSEOUL, South Korea — South Korea's Unification Ministry says North Korea has demanded Seoul return 11 people who defected to the South by sea last week. The ministry says in a statement that the North sent its demand in a message Sunday.

October 1st, 2009 11 North Koreans defect by sea to South KoreaSEOUL, South Korea — South Korea's military says a group of 11 North Koreans have defected by sea. An official at the Joint Chiefs of Staff says the North Koreans crossed into southern waters off the divided peninsula's east coast aboard a small barge early Thursday evening.

August 31st, 2009 PYONGYANG - US and South Korean spy planes conducted over 170 reconnaissance missions over North Korea in August, the official media reported Monday citing a military source. Some 90 flights were conducted by the US, which used the RC-135, U-2 and E-3 reconnaissance aircraft over waters near the northeastern part of South Korea, while South Korea was responsible for at least 80 flights, the Korean Central News Agency said.

August 17th, 2009 SEOUL - North Korea Monday put its troops on alert as an annual joint South Korean-US war game commenced and accused its neighbour of planning an attack. North Korea would react to any provocation with a "merciless and prompt annihilating strike at the aggressors with all offensive and defensive means, including nuclear deterrent", state media quoted the high command of the Korean People's Army as saying.

June 9th, 2009 SEOUL - North Korea stepped up threats over its controversial nuclear weapons programme Tuesday, saying it would use the missiles if provoked. In a commentary released by the state-run Minju Choson newspaper, North Korea raised tensions again in what is widely regarded as an attempt to stave off international punishment for its May 25 nuclear test.

May 29th, 2009 WASHINGTON - US Defence Secretary Robert Gates said Friday that the US had detected no unusual military movement in North Korea and did not plan to send reinforcements to South Korea in response to Pyongyang's threat to attack the South, the New York Times reported. Speaking to reporters on his plane on the US Pacific island of Guam, Gates said he saw no reason to reinforce the 28,000 American troops already stationed in South Korea.

May 27th, 2009 SEOUL - North Korea on Wednesday threatened to launch military strikes against South Korea if any of its ships were stopped or searched as part of an American-led operation to intercept vessels suspected of carrying weapons of mass destruction. "We consider this a declaration of war against us," an unidentified North Korean military spokesman said Wednesday in a statement carried by the North's official news agency KCNA.

April 21st, 2009 SEOUL - A South Korean delegation reached North Korea Tuesday morning to participate in talks amid mounting tensions in the Korean Peninsula. 'The delegation has crossed the border,' a spokesman of South Korea's Unification Ministry said.

April 19th, 2009 SEOUL - The South Korean government Sunday said that it has decided to accept Pyongyang's offer for holding inter-Korean talks next week. It will be the first governmental talks between South Korea and North Korea since South Korean President Lee Myung-bak took office in February last year.

March 12th, 2009 PYONGYANG - North Korea has warned that it is "fully combat ready" to retaliate against any attempt to thwart off its planned satellite launch. "Shooting our satellite for peaceful purposes will precisely mean a war," said the statement, carried by Pyongyang's official Korean Central News Agency.

March 6th, 2009 SEOUL - North Korea Thursday indirectly threatened to shoot down South Korean passenger aircraft in its airspace, amid growing tension on the Korean peninsula. North Korea's Committee for the Peaceful Reunification of Korea made the threat as the US and South Korea prepared to undertake joint military exercises next Monday.

February 18th, 2009 PYONGYANG - North Korea Thursday said its army was ready for an 'an all-out confrontation' with South Korea, the official KCNA news agency reported. The Lee Myung-bak administration of South Korea, which is trying to find a way-out of its serious inner crisis through escalating confrontation with North Korea, will meet 'the merciless and stern punishment by the army and people of North Korea,' a military spokesman for Korean People's Army (KPA) said.

January 29th, 2009 PYONGYANG - North Korea has scrapped all political and military agreements with South Korea, the official KCNA news agency reported Friday. It denounced the South Korean government for pushing the inter-Korean relations to the brink of a war.

January 16th, 2009 PYONGYANG - North Korea will not give up its nuclear weapons programme under US threat, a foreign ministry spokesman said here Saturday. 'If there is something to be desired by us (North Korea), it is not normalisation of relations with the US, but to boost nuclear deterrent in every possible way,' the official KCNA news agency quoted the spokesman as saying.