{{South Korea’s new president on Monday promised a strong military response to any North Korean provocation after Pyongyang announced that the two countries were now in a state of war.}}<\/p>\n
President Park Geun-Hye’s warning came as North Korea’s rubber-stamp parliament was set to hold its annual session and a day after ruling party leaders vowed to enshrine Pyongyang’s right to nuclear weapons in law.<\/p>\n
In a meeting with senior military officials and Defence Minister Kim Kwan-Jin, Park said she took the near-daily stream of bellicose threats emanating from the North over the past month “very seriously.”<\/p>\n
“I believe that we should make a strong and immediate retaliation without any other political considerations if (the North) stages any provocation against our people,” she said.<\/p>\n
Park, a conservative who had advocated cautious engagement with the North during her campaign, has been compelled to take a more hardline posture after assuming office in February.<\/p>\n
The Korean peninsula has been caught in a cycle of escalating tensions since North Korea’s long-range rocket launch in December which its critics condemned as a ballistic missile test.<\/p>\n
United Nations sanctions were followed by a nuclear test in February, after which came more sanctions and more apocalyptic threats from Pyongyang as South Korea and the United States conducted joint military drills.<\/p>\n
Those threats have run the gamut from limited artillery bombardments to pre-emptive nuclear strikes, and have been met with warnings from Seoul and Washington of severe repercussions.<\/p>\n
The US military said Monday it had deployed F-22 Raptor stealth fighters to South Korea as part of the ongoing “Foal Eagle” military exercise.<\/p>\n
The jets were reportedly flown out of the US air base in Okinawa, Japan.<\/p>\n
North Korea has already threatened to strike the US mainland and US bases in the Pacific in response to the participation of nuclear-capable US B-52 and B-2 stealth bombers in this year’s exercise.<\/p>\n
The annual gathering of the North’s Supreme People’s Assembly usually scores low on important policy announcements — its role largely limited to unanimously pushing through pre-decided budgets and personnel changes.<\/p>\n
But with North Korea having declared itself in a “state of war” with the South, Monday’s session will be closely watched for any sign of the current crisis impacting on the fortunes of members of the ruling elite.<\/p>\n
“The North has played most of its political cards, so I don’t see any fresh, tangible threats to come out after the meeting,” said Cho Han-Bum, an analyst at the Korea Institute for National Unification.<\/p>\n
“It will probably issue some kind of symbolic statement, like urging all North Koreans to stand ready for a possible war,” Cho said.<\/p>\n
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