North Korea's Latest Threat Is Against US Bases In Pacific

AFP

North Korean State News says that early Friday morning leader Kim Jong-Un gave the go to actively lock on to targets in South Korea and in U.S. territory in the Pacific, according to CNN.

From CNN:

In a meeting with military leaders early Friday, Kim Jung Un "said he has judged the time has come to settle accounts with the U.S. imperialists in view of the prevailing situation," the state-run KCNA news agency reported.

"If they make a reckless provocation with huge strategic forces, the KPA should mercilessly strike the U.S. mainland, their stronghold, their military bases in the operational theaters in the Pacific, including Hawaii and Guam, and those in South Korea, he said," KCNA said.

The provocation Kim refers to is the recent flying of B-2 Spirit stealth bombers over the South Korea as part of a training exercise.

A separate CBS news report says experts think an attack highly unlikely.

From the report:

CBS News correspondent Major Garrett notes that it's not unusual for North Korea to threaten war when the U.S. and South Korea carry out joint training exercises, but the White House views Kim as an unpredictable figure.

One sign this could all be North Korean bluster, Garrett reports, is that North Korea has kept open a key industrial park where hundreds of South Koreans do business every day and where global trade produces roughly $2 billion for the isolated nuclear power.