Monitoring Desk
ISLAMABAD/SEOUL: Blaming joint military drills between South Korea and the United States (US) for growing tensions in the region, North Korea has warned that any move to shoot down its test missiles would be deemed a declaration of war.
In a statement, Kim Yo Jong, the powerful sister of leader Kim Jong Un, warned that Pyongyang would see it as a “declaration of war” if the US took military action against the North’s strategic weapon tests.
US and its allies
Yo Jong, who serves as the Deputy Department Director of the Publicity and Information Department of the Workers’ Party of Korea, hinted that North Korea could fire missiles into the Pacific Ocean.
She said that “the Pacific Ocean does not belong to the dominium of the US or Japan”
Analysts have said if North follows through on its threat to turn the Pacific Ocean into a “firing range”, it would allow the isolated and nuclear-weapons state to make technical advances in addition to strengthening its army resolve.
Jong accused the US of “aggravating” the situation by conducting a joint air drill with South Korea in the region.
