DPRK threatens combat posture targeting U.S., South Korea

The Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK) said Tuesday its strategic rocket and long-range artillery units have been ordered to enter combat posture targeting the United States and South Korea.

The Supreme Command of the Korean People's Army said that all the field artillery troops, including strategic rocket units and long-range artillery units, were to be put on the highest alert, the official KCNA news agency reported.

The units are combat ready to strike bases "in the U.S. mainland and on Hawaii and Guam and other operational zones in the Pacific as well as all the enemy targets in South Korea and its vicinity," the supreme command said in a statement.

                                                        Kim Jung-il inspecting the military unit of the DPRK.

The United States allowed B-52 bombers deployed in Anderson air force base on Guam to fly into the sky above South Korea on Monday, according to the statement.

America also allowed the conservative media of South Korea to say openly that the operational plan of "South Korea-U.S. combined forces" includes targeting the dignity of the supreme leadership of the DPRK with the use of lethal striking methods, it said.

Such moves clearly prove that hostility against the DPRK has "entered a reckless phase of practical implementation after going beyond the phase of threatening and blackmailing," the statement said.

"We will demonstrate with the practical military action (and) the firm will of the army and people of the DPRK to take counteraction to defend the sovereignty and dignity of the supreme leadership of the country," it said.