War may flare up in Korean Peninsula any time-NKorean minister.

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23/12 Tass 211

PYONGYANG, December 23 (Itar-Tass) - The tension in the Korean
Peninsula has reached such a level when "war may erupt any time", said
here on Thursday member of the Politburo of the Korean Workers Party,
deputy chairman of the State Defence Committee and Minister of People's
Armed Forces Kim Yong Chun.
He spoke at a gala meeting, devoted to the 19th anniversary of
electing Kim Jong-Il supreme commander-in-chief. The minister noted in his
report that South Korea had engineered recently "a serious military
provocation as shelling of the North Korean territory during the military
manoeuvres in the West Korean (Yellow) Sea". This points to a fact, he
emphasised, that "the aggressive scenario of the enemy to unleash another
Korean War has entered the stage of realisation".
In this connection, Kim warned that the Korean People's Army would
inflict powerful retaliatory strikes without delay if "the enemy invades
sea, air or land space even by an inch". He also added that the North
Korean revolutionary forces "are ready to launch a sacred war any time,
using nuclear forces of restraint so as to counter the enemy, over whom
the situation in the Korean Peninsula has been brought to the brink of
war".
If the American imperialists and their sympathisers unleash a
large-scale war, the North Korean armed forces, "apart from wiping out the
aggressor, will destroy his bases, uprooting thereby reasons of war and
then will implement the historic mission of the homeland's unification,"
the minister said.
The meeting was attended by party, state and military leaders,
executives of various ministries and organisations, including public
figures, army servicemen and representatives from factory personnel.
-0-bur/gor