North Korea to Japan: You're First

Pyongyang warns it could nuke Tokyo over the 'slightest move'
By Mark Russell,  Newser Staff
Posted Apr 12, 2013 10:54 AM CDT
North Korea to Japan: You're First
North Korea's Unha-3 rocket lifts off from the Sohae launch pad in Tongchang-ri, North Korea. North Korea threatened to nuke Japan if Japan shoots down a test launch by the North.   (AP Photo/KCNA, File)

After threatening the United States and South Korea with nuclear strikes, North Korea nearly forgot its other favorite target—Japan. That oversight has been corrected now, though, as the Korean Central News Agency today warned that Tokyo will be its first target if Japan keeps up its "hostile posture" toward Pyongyang, Yonhap News reports. "Japan is always in the cross-hairs of our revolutionary army and if Japan makes a slightest move, the spark of war will touch Japan first," wrote the KCNA, according to the RT Network.

North Korea warned Japan not to try shooting down any test missiles it might launch. Any "provocation" by Japan would end with Tokyo "consumed in nuclear flames," warned KCNA. US Secretary of State John Kerry, in Seoul today, reiterated that any missile launch by North Korea would be a "huge mistake," reports Yonhap News. Tomorrow Kerry heads to China to urge leaders there to do more to control Pyongyang. "There is no group of leaders on the face of the planet who have more capacity to make a difference in this than the Chinese," said Kerry. (More North Korea stories.)

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