N/Korea warns against U.S., S/Korea military exercises

North Korea warned on Tuesday of harsh retaliation against South Korea and its ally the United States, which are preparing for annual joint military exercises next month amid heightened tensions following the North’s nuclear test and rocket launch.
The North calls the annual exercises preparations for war and routinely vows to retaliate.
“All the powerful strategic and tactical strike means of our revolutionary armed forces will go into preemptive and just operation to beat back the enemy forces to the last man if there is a slight sign of their special operation forces and equipment moving to carry out the so-called ‘beheading operation’ and ‘high-density strike,’” the Supreme Command of the Korean People’s Army said in a statement carried by state media. It said its first target would be South Korea’s presidential Blue House, while U.S. military bases in Asia and on the U.S. mainland would be its secondary targets. About 28,500 U.S. troops are based in South Korea.