The Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK) said on Monday it will launch a war on the territory of the United States, Japan and South Korea, if its satellite launching "for peaceful purpose" was intercepted.
The DPRK "will launch without hesitation a just retaliatory strike operation not only against all the interceptor means involved but against the strongholds of the U.S. and Japanese aggressors and the south Korean puppets who hatched plots to intercept it," the official KCNA news cited a spokesman for the General Staff of the Korean People's Army (KPA) as saying.
The spokesman issued a three-points statement on Monday. The firm-stand statement reiterated an "all-out confrontation" against the South Korea, vowing to strike back intruders.
It announced "a more strict military control" over the borders of the two Koreas and cut-off the north-south military communications during the U.S.-S. Korea joint military exercises.
The DPRK has said it was going to shoot a communication satellite as part of a peaceful space program. But the U.S. and South Korean media alleged the DPRK was going to test-fire a ballistic missile "Taepodong-2," with a maximum estimated range of 6,700 km, designed to carry a nuclear warhead that could hit targets on the U.S. territory.
The DPRK said it put an experimental satellite "Kwangmyongsong-1" into orbit in August 1998. But the U.S. believed it was a "Taepodong-1" missile test-launch.
(Xinhua News Agency March 9, 2009)