Stung by tough new sanctions just imposed by the United Nations over its fission-class nuclear weapons programme, and upset over the support these sanctions have had from its neighbour and recent ally China, North Korea has now threatened that it might use its nuclear weapons (presumably attached to ballistic missiles) in a first strike against its enemies, threating to turn South Korea’s capital Seoul and the US capital Washington D.C. into a “sea of fire”.
At the same time, the government of the North Korea (the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea) has raised alarm bells in the region by formally ending the “cease fire” which ended the Korean War in 1953, and pulling out of the communications “hot line” between Pyongyang and Seoul which theoretically could prevent a misunderstanding leading to all out war.
US and Japanese Navy cruisers and destroyers equipped with the Aegis/Standard Missile-3 system which has an anti-ballistic missile capability are now expected to be put on alert in the region.
