NORTH KOREA IS prepared to respond to any nuclear attack by the United States in kind, the country’s number two official said this morning.

Tensions between the two countries have simmered in recent weeks as fears over the nuclear capabilities of North Korea have risen.

And in a show of strength overnight, Kim Jong Un was the guest of honour at a military parade in the capital Pyongyang. He didn’t speak, however, leaving those duties to his aide Choe Ryong-Hae.

In his speech, he said: “We’re prepared to respond to an all-out war with an all-out war and we are ready to hit back with nuclear attacks of our own style against any nuclear attacks.”

Led by rows of military bands, columns of troops toting rifles and a troupe of sword-wielding female soldiers marched into the vast square in the heart of the city which was festooned in the national colours of blue, white and red.

Parade

“Today’s parade will provide a chance to display our powerful military might,” a male voiceover said on the TV broadcast.

Ostensibly the event is to mark the 105th anniversary of the birth of Kim’s grandfather, the North’s founder Kim Il-Sung, a date known as the “Day of the Sun” in the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea, the country’s official name.

But it is also intended to send an unmistakable message to Washington about the isolated, nuclear-armed North’s military might.

A US-based monitoring group believes it has found evidence to show that the country is “primed and ready” at one of its nuclear sites.

38North says that satellite images of the Punggye-ri site in the north of the country shows that a nuclear test could be imminent.

On its website, the group said: “Commercial satellite imagery of North Korea’s Punggye-ri nuclear test site from 12 April shows continued activity around the site’s command centre.

“In the courtyards of the main administrative area are approximately 11 probable tarp-covered pallets of equipment or supplies, a formation of personnel, and several individuals walking about.”

North Korean soldiers carry flags during a military parade on Saturday, Wong Maye-E Wong Maye-E

US President Donald Trump has dispatched an aircraft carrier group to the Korean peninsula, to support allies Japan and South Korea in the face of increasingly hostile relations with North Korea.

“We are sending an armada. Very powerful,” he told the Fox Business Network.

Beijing has urged Trump to take a peaceful approach to resolving the issue, but the Global Times newspaper, which sometimes reflects the thinking of the leadership, issued an unequivocal warning to Pyongyang that it should “avoid making mistakes at this time”.

A new nuclear test would be a “slap in the face of the US government” and Beijing would not “remain indifferent”, it said.

With reporting from AFP - © AFP, 2017

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