“Dark Clouds of Nuke War” Gathering over Peninsula, Warns North Korea

Marking the anniversary of the 1950-1953 conflict, North Korea has vowed to reinforce its atomic arsenal and warned that “dark clouds of nuclear war” are gathering over the peninsula.

Ruling communist party’s newspaper Rodong Sinmun blamed that the US and South Korea are trying to incite another war by US nuclear “umbrella” over the South.

“A touch-and-go situation has been created on the Korean peninsula… with dark clouds of a nuclear war gathering as the hours tick by,” it said in a lengthy commentary marking the anniversary, carried by the official news agency.

A new war could result any time and the North will carry on strengthening its nuclear arsenal, said that paper.

“As long as the US hostile policy continues, we will never give up our nuclear deterrent and even strengthen it,” Rodong said.

It should be noted that the conflict began with a North Korean invasion on June 25, 1950. It ended with an armistice rather than a peace treaty, leaving the communist North and capitalist South still technically at war.

Cross-border relations have soured since a conservative government took office in Seoul in February last year with a firmer policy towards the North.

And international tensions have grown since Pyongyang’s long-range rocket launch in early April and its nuclear test in late May.

The North has also fired short-range missiles, renounced the truce in force on the peninsula and repeatedly warned of possible war.

At a US-South Korean summit in Washington last week, Washington reaffirmed its commitment to provide the South with a nuclear umbrella.