South Korea Details Plan to Reduce All of Pyongyang to Ashes

While international officials continue to express confusion as to why North Korea would even consider acquiring nuclear weapons in defiance of UN edicts, South Korea’s Defense Ministry revealed plans to reduce the entire North Korean capital city of Pyongyang, a city of 2.5 million people, to ashes.

The Defense Ministry refers to the plan as the Korea Massive Punishment and Retaliation (KMPR) plan, and described it as reducing the entire city of Pyongyang, including every single district, to ashes, and removing the city from the map outright through military force.

Officials said the KMPR would be put into effect either if the South Korean military sees any sign of imminent North Korean use of nuclear arms “or in case of a war.” Technically, the two nations are already at war, and have been for generations.

Though exact details are not fully public, reports suggest that South Korea would plan to use its substantial conventional arsenal of ballistic missiles to wipe out the city, and officials confirmed that North Korean leadership would be targeted as well.

North Korea conducted an underground nuclear test last week, the fifth of its kind. Such tests tend to be followed by increased threats from US and South Korean officials, though the specificity in this case is likely to fuel North Korea’s belief that it needs such arms for defensive purposes.