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North Korea's ‘may shoot down’ warning to US spy planes violating its airspace
Kim Yo Jong, the sister of North Korea's leader, warns the US of a "decisive response" if its military enters the country's economic zone again.
Kim Yo Jong, the powerful sister of North Korea's supreme leader Kim Jong Un, on Monday warned the US of a "decisive response" if its military enters the country's economic zone again, reported Reuters. Kim Yo Jong accused the United States of violating its airspace by conducting surveillance flights, according to the report citing state media KCNA. She said a US spy plane entered North Korea's economic zone on July 10.
An unnamed spokesperson of North Korea's Ministry of National Defence claimed that the alleged provocative military actions by the US were bringing the Korean peninsula closer to a nuclear conflict, according to a statement carried by KCNA. The report also cited the use of US reconnaissance planes and drones and said Washington was escalating tensions by sending a nuclear submarine near the peninsula.
The spokesperson warned that, while Pyongyang was exercising restraint, such flights may be shot down.
"There is no guarantee that such a shocking accident as the downing of the U.S. Air Force strategic reconnaissance plane will not happen" in waters east of Korea, the spokesperson said.
Hitting out at the move by the US to deploy nuclear submarines in the Korean Peninsula, the spokesperson said the plan will "bring the regional military tension to a more critical state and may incite the worst crisis of nuclear conflict". Pyongyang alleged that the attempt to deploy such submarines is the “most undisguised nuclear blackmail against” North Korea and its neighbouring countries and a “grave threat and challenge to regional and global peace and security.”
(With Reuters inputs)
