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South Korea Pledges Quick Retaliation if North Korea Strikes

South Korean President Park Geun-hye

With brinksmanship between North Korea, South Korea and the United States escalating at an alarming rate, South Korea’s new president said today that her country will strike back quickly if the North stages any attack on its territory.

“If there is any provocation against South Korea and its people, there should be a strong response in initial combat without any political considerations,” President Park Geun-hye reportedly told the defense minister and senior officials at a meeting on Monday.

According to published reports, South Korea is now going to allow local military units to respond immediately to attacks, rather than waiting for permission from senior officials in Seoul.

The U.S. yesterday sent advanced, radar-evading F-22 Raptors to Osan Air Base, the main U.S. Air Force base in South Korea, from Japan, the U.S. military command in South Korea said in a statement that urged North Korea to restrain itself. The stealth fighters were intended to support ongoing bilateral exercises.

“The (Democratic People’s Republic of Korea) will achieve nothing by threats or provocations, which will only further isolate North Korea and undermine international efforts to ensure peace and stability in Northeast Asia,” the statement said. “The North Korean leadership is urged to heed President Obama’s call to choose the path of peace and come into compliance with its international obligations.”

Even Pope Francis entered the fray, praying in his first Easter Sunday address for a diplomatic solution to the crisis on the Korean peninsula.

The U.S. military command said the jets were deployed to support air drills as part of the annual Foal Eagle training exercises, carried out in accordance with the armistice that put an end to armed hostilities in 1953.

North Korea declared the armistice invalid on March 11, 10 days after Foal Eagle began.

The United States’ participation in Foal Eagle is intended to demonstrate the country’s “commitment to stability and security in the Asia-Pacific Region,” the U.S. military command in South Korea.

Seoul has also threatened to target North Korean leader Kim Jong-un and to destroy statues of the ruling Kim dynasty in the event of any new attack, which reportedly has upset Pyongyang.

In what appeared to be a not-too-subtle warning to North Korea, the United States military announced last week that two nuclear-capable B-2 bombers flew on a 6,500-mile nonstop mission from Missouri to South Korea, dropping dummy munitions on an island bombing range there and immediately returning home without refueling.

The U.S. Strategic Command said the trip was intended to show how the U.S. can conduct long-range strikes quickly. Known as a stealth bomber and resembling some sleek futuristic gizmo out of a Batman movie, the B-2 is designed to fly undetected by Soviet-era radar.

In response, Kim Jong Un ordered his medium- and long-range missile forces to be on standby for a possible attack on Hawaii, Guam and South Korea, according to KCNA, the official North Korean news agency.

KCNA said Kim had “judged the time has come to settle accounts with the U.S. imperialists in view of the prevailing situation.”

Secretary of Defense Chuck Hagel said that “these provocations by the North are taken by us very seriously, and we’ll respond to that.”

“The North Koreans have to understand that what they’re doing is very dangerous,” Hagel said. “I don’t think we’re doing anything extraordinary or provocative or out of the … orbit of what nations do to protect their own interests.”

Russian Foreign Minister Sergie Lavrov aid from Moscow that the tit-for-tat moves were becoming a “vicious cycle” that could “simply get out of control,” according to Reuters.

Lavrov said Russia is concerned that “unilateral action is being taken around North Korea that is increasing military activity.”

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