N. Korea denounces plan for rotational deployment of US strategic weapons in S. Korea

A North Korean propaganda organization criticized South Korea and the United States on Saturday for planning to rotationally deploy U.S. strategic weapons in South Korea, warning that Pyongyang will take the toughest countermeasures against such deployment.

After a summit between South Korean President Moon Jae-in and U.S. President Donald Trump in New York last month, Seoul officials said Seoul and Washington had agreed on the rotational deployment of U.S. strategic assets in South Korea, possibly by the end of this year.

In a report in English carried by Pyongyang's official news agency, the North's Pan-Korean Emergency Measure Committee for Opposing Nuclear War Drills said the planned deployment of U.S. strategic assets in South Korea "clearly proves that Trump's lunatic pledge to 'totally destroy' the DPRK (North Korea)."

If U.S. strategic assets were deployed in South Korea, the North Korean organization said the weapons would become "the first target of destruction" by North Korea, and that Seoul and Washington "face total destruction even by by-blow."

North Korea conducted its sixth and most powerful nuclear test Sept. 3 after successfully test-launching two intercontinental ballistic missiles.

In recent months, tensions on the Korean Peninsula have also escalated, and North Korean leader Kim Jong-un and President Trump have exchanged harsh rhetoric over the North's nuclear and missile programs. (Yonhap)