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North Korea Threatens U.S. Military Bases in the Pacific North Korea Threatens U.S. Military Bases in Pacific
(about 11 hours later)
SEOUL — North Korea on Thursday threatened to attack American military bases in Japan and on the Pacific island of Guam in retaliation for training missions by American B-52 bombers over the Korean Peninsula, while state radio blared air-raid warnings to the North Korean people. SEOUL, South Korea — North Korea on Thursday threatened to attack American military bases in Japan and on the Pacific island of Guam in retaliation for recent training missions by American B-52 bombers over South Korea.
Until the 1990s, air-raid drills had been a popular tool for the North Korean regime to highlight the perceived threat of an American invasion and to instill in its people a sense of crisis and solidarity. The one-hour air-raid drill on Thursday came amid heightened tensions on the Korean Peninsula after the North’s nuclear test on Feb. 12 and the subsequent United Nations sanctions against the North. While the North has threatened American forces in Guam before, the latest warning comes amid heightened tension on the peninsula after a North Korean nuclear test last month and the imposition of United Nations sanctions that have infuriated Pyongyang.
Nuclear-capable B-52 bombers, taking off from Guam, had previously flown missions over South Korea as part of joint military exercises. But this month, the Pentagon took the rare action of publicly announcing those missions to reaffirm the United States’ “nuclear umbrella” for South Korea and Japan at a time of rising anxiety over the North’s nuclear threats. South Korean news media also carried photos of an American nuclear-powered attack submarine making a port call at a South Korean naval base. Those tensions might rise again because of another United Nations action on Thursday: the decision by its Human Rights Council creating a commission to look into allegations of human rights violations in North Korea, including the incarceration of political prisoners at labor camps and torture.
“The U.S. should not forget that the Anderson Air Force Base on Guam, where B-52s take off, and naval bases in Japan proper and Okinawa, where nuclear-powered submarines are launched, are within the striking range of the DPRK’s precision strike means,” a spokesman of the Supreme Command of the North Korean People’s Army told the state-run Korean Central News Agency on Thursday. Navi Pillay, the United Nations high commissioner for human rights, has been calling for such an investigation for months, fearful that the world’s preoccupation with the North’s growing nuclear arsenal overshadowed discussions of a human rights situation she called “the worst in the whole world” in an interview with the news agency Reuters.
He added, without elaborating, “Now that the U.S. started open nuclear blackmail and threat, the DPRK, too, will move to take corresponding military actions.” The commission will be somewhat limited in what it can do — it is unlikely to get access to North Korea, a police state, and it remains unclear what court would take up its findings. But Kenneth Roth, executive director of Human Rights Watch, told Radio Australia that “collecting the evidence is the first step toward putting pressure on the international community, and whoever North Korea’s defenders are, to ultimately acquiesce in prosecution” of what he called “the terrible atrocities that are routinely committed in North Korea.”
DPRK stands for the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea, the North’s official name. An estimated 1 in 120 North Koreans are imprisoned in gulags, where defectors from the country say starvation, forced labor and torture are endemic.
Japan and American Pacific bases are within range of North Korea’s medium-range missiles, according to South Korean defense officials. The threats against American troops on Thursday were the latest in a stream of vitriol from the North in the wake of the United Nations sanctions. Japanese and American Pacific bases are within range of North Korea’s medium-range missiles, according to South Korean officials.
Separately, North Korea said on Thursday that it would convene its Supreme People’s Assembly on April 1. The rubber-stamp Parliament, which usually meets once a year, endorses government budgets, policies and personnel reshuffles ordered by the top leader, Kim Jong-un. Nuclear-capable B-52 bombers that upset the North have flown missions over South Korea in the past as part of joint military exercises. But this month, the Pentagon took the rare action of announcing those missions to reaffirm the United States’ “nuclear umbrella” for South Korea and Japan at a time of rising anxiety over the North’s nuclear threats.
One of the two joint American and South Korean military exercises that have infuriated North Korea ended on Thursday. But Seoul and Washington remained alert over the possibility that the North might follow up on some of its vaguely worded threats to attack the allies. On Thursday, a spokesman of the Supreme Command of the North Korean People’s Army told the state-run Korean Central News Agency that “the U.S. should not forget that the Anderson Air Force Base on Guam, where B-52s take off, and naval bases in Japan proper and Okinawa, where nuclear-powered submarines are launched, are within the striking range of the DPRK’s precision strike means.”
Such fears increased on Wednesday, when a hacking attack originating from an Internet address in China caused a widespread shutdown, paralyzing about 32,000 computers at South Korea’s two largest public broadcasters, an all-news cable channel and three banks. He added, without elaborating, “Now that the U.S. started open nuclear blackmail and threat, the DPRK, too, will move to take corresponding military actions,” referring to the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea, the North’s official name.
The South’s Korea Communications Commission said on Thursday that a “single organization” was behind the spread of the malicious code. The virus infiltrated the networks through company servers that send automatic updates of security and other software. State radio also blared air-raid warnings in North Korea. Until the 1990s, air-raid drills were a popular tool for the North Korean government to highlight the perceived threat of an American invasion and to instill in its people a sense of crisis and solidarity.
While South Korean regulators said it was still too early to assign blame, suspicion fell on North Korea, which recently threatened the South and the United States with attacks. South Korea has previously accused North Korean hackers of using Chinese addresses to launch their attacks. One of the two joint American and South Korean military exercises that have angered North Korea ended Thursday. But Seoul and Washington remained alert over the possibility that the North might follow up on some of its vaguely worded threats to attack the allies. The North Koreans have also been angry about what they expected to be an unfavorable outcome in the Human Rights Council.
“With a strong suspicion over possible North Korean involvement, we are pursuing all possibilities,” a senior aide to President Park Geun-hye told reporters, speaking on condition of anonymity. On March 11, the North’s official party paper, The Rodong Sinmun, said the council’s expected move to adopt the resolution, coupled with the United Nations sanctions, would “raise tensions and ignite a war to invade the North.” It vowed to deliver “a merciless mace-blow” on “traitors” in South Korea.
South Korea’s National Intelligence Service suspects North Korean involvement in at least 6 of 73,000 hacking attacks in South Korea since 2008, said an opposition lawmaker, Jung Cheong-rae, citing agency’s data provided at his request. The spy agency pointed the finger at North Korea in hacking attacks that disrupted South Korean government Web sites in 2009 and 2011, he said. On Thursday, North Korea’s ambassador, So Se Pyong, rejected the resolution as “an instrument that serves the political purposes of the hostile forces in their attempt to discredit the image” of his country. He denied human rights abuses existed there.
“Throughout the world, states that build means of cyberwarfare and engage in it are precisely the same countries that develop nuclear weapons,” a Defense Ministry spokesman, Kim Min-seok, said on Thursday, referring to the North’s nuclear programs. The commission will include the Indonesian lawyer Marzuki Darusman, who wrote a report for the council citing the kidnapping of foreigners and the system of labor camps. He said the situation had worsened since the North’s new young leader, Kim Jong-un, took over after his father’s death in December 2011.
The hacking attack on Wednesday brought down the servers of the South Korean broadcasters KBS and MBC and the cable channel YTN, as well as three commercial banks: Shinhan, NongHyup and Jeju. The coordinated attack shut down many cash machines across the country and left some people unable to use their debit or credit cards. The European Union and Japan sponsored the resolution calling for the commission, and the United States backed it. With no Chinese or Russian vote on the 47-member council, North Korea had no country willing to oppose the inquiry.
The banks reported normal operations on Thursday, except for some A.T.M.'s that needed repairs. The television stations broadcast normally but said many of their internal computers were still shut down. Mr. Roth of Human Rights Watch acknowledged the difficulties facing investigators. “There is no international tribunal that has jurisdiction over North Korea,” he told Radio Australia. “Theoretically, the International Criminal Court could be brought in with a resolution from the U.N. Security Council, yet China would probably veto that at this stage.” China has long been the North’s benefactor, and has often fought sanctions against the country. But it supported the latest sanctions after the nuclear test, which it had asked the North to forgo.
The attack did not affect government agencies or transportation systems, and the banks said after preliminary investigations that their customers’ records had not been compromised.

Choe Sang-Hun reported from Seoul, and Steven Erlanger from Paris.

Still, the disruptions raised a sense of vulnerability in South Korea, which has been proud of its broadband and mobile Internet access.