All North Korean field artillery units, including those units that are equipped with long-range weaponry and strategic rockets at at the top level of "Combat Ready Posture," or "Il-ho," according to an announcement by North Korea's supreme command on Tuesday.
The Supreme Command’s statement was read over Pyongyang’s central broadcasting station. On air, they announced that “From this moment the Supreme Command will put on the highest alert all the field artillery units including strategic rocket units and long-range artillery units which are assigned to strike bases of the U.S. imperialist aggressor troops in the U.S. mainland and on Hawaii and Guam and other operational zones in the Pacific as well as all the enemy targets in South Korea and its vicinity.”
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This newer, stronger threat from North Korea, comes after last week’s warning that the North would attack U.S. bases in the Pacific if those bases “make even the slightest movement.” The newest war-like rhetoric comes only hours after South Korea’s President Park Geun-hys called on North Korea to change, saying, “the only way North Korea will survive is if it voluntarily lays down its nuclear weapons, missiles, provocations and threats, and transforms into a responsible member of the international community.”
President Geun-hye’s remarks were made at the Daejeon National Cemetary, where the South Korean President was speaking as part of the memorial of the sinking of a South Korean coastal warship, the Cheonan, in March of 2010. That sinking, three years ago, was widely blamed on the North Koreans, took the lives of 46 South Korean sailors.
The North Koreans denied that attack that occurred in the Yellow Sea, but a multi-national investigation pointed their finger at a North Korean torpedo that sank the ship. Some South Koreans were skeptical of those findings as well.
South Korea’s Ministry of National Defense spokesman, Wee Yong-sub announced that there are military maneuvers underway in the North with elements consisting of North Korea’s navy and army. According to the report, the North Korean units are conducting amphibious landings and counter-landings along their shores. But, even so, South Korea’s Defense Ministry said there was no sign of imminent military action.