North Korea Warns of Nuclear War as Tensions Continue to Rise

State Media Warns Korean Peninsula Has Highest Chance of Nuclear War in the World

by Jason Ditz, June 14, 2009

South Korean President Lee Myung-bak is traveling to the United States for talks with President Obama, as tensions on the Korean Peninsula reached a new high today. North Korea has responded to US plans to stop its ships under a new UN resolution by threatening war in that event. The nation also appears to be raising the specter of a nuclear war.

Yesterday, North Korea’s state media published a commentary which claimed the US has been deploying massive numbers of nuclear weapons in that theater of operations, and noted that the peninsula has the highest chance of nuclear war of any place in the world.

Last month North Korea successfully tested a nuclear weapon, and US officials are claiming evidence exists that another test may be imminent. The nation has acknowledged having a uranium enrichment program and says it is in the process of weaponizing what plutonium it has to add to its arsenal.

Vice President Joe Biden admitted the administration has no idea what North Korea is seeking during the latest showdown, but insisted that the US must continue “keeping the pressure on.” So far that pressure has resulted in little but multiple missile tests and another series of sanctions no one expects to have any impact.

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