North says it will destroy Seoul, again

North Korea can turn Seoul into a “sea of fire” with a nuclear warhead, Pyongyang said on Thursday through its propaganda website Meari.

The North said it would issue a direct order to an artillery unit armed with nuclear warheads to fire their arsenal at Seoul, an order that the North said would “instantly turn Seoul into a sea of fire.”

“It is common sense that it only takes a single hydrogen bomb to destroy a major city,” said the North, “Seoul can be wiped off the map if the South Korean government keeps up its nonsense talk about destroying Pyongyang.”

The North’s threat to turn Seoul, a city of 10 million people, into a sea of fire is par for the course when it comes to the communist regime’s banal vitriol against the South.

The North also lashed out at the United States and said the reason why it pursued an advanced nuclear strike capability was to fight Washington on the U.S. mainland, referring to its pursuit of an intercontinental missile with a nuclear warhead mounted on top of it.

Pyongyang’s rhetoric is thought to have been intended for a military operation plan recently unveiled by the South, titled Korea Massive Punishment & Retaliation (KMPR).

With the KMPR operation plan, the South Korean military vows to strike the military and political leadership in Pyongyang in a pre-emptive strike in the event of a nuclear attack by the North, or when signs of such an attack are detected.

The military reported the KMPR to lawmakers who belong to the parliamentary defense committee earlier this month, outlining a military course of action that entails a pre-emptive strike at the North Korean capital and locations where core leadership members could be hiding to avoid bombardments.

The North’s reaction came a day after the U.S. Air Force sent two of its B-1B strategic bombers to perform a flyover through South Korean air Wednesday from the Andersen Air Base in Guam in a show of force.

Washington’s decision to send two B-1B bombers, the United States’ heaviest supersonic strategic bombers, which can fly at twice the speed of sound, is seen as a sign of its commitment to protect its ally and retaliate against the North should it attack.

BY KANG JIN-KYU [kang.jinkyu@joongang.co.kr]