- As Philippines releases seized North Korean ship after UN lifts embargo
North Korea says its has carried out a live-fire artillery drill simulating an attack on the official residence of the South Korean president.
The exercise was overseen by North leader Kim Jong-un, said the KCNA state news agency, who called on the military to be ready to “ruthlessly” destroy the government in South.
It is the latest in a series of angry gestures by Pyongyang.
The South’s President Park Geun-Hye has ordered the army to be on alert.
But she said on Thursday that “reckless provocations will only become a path to self-destruction for the North Korean regime”.
North Korea has been reacting after the UN imposed some of its toughest sanctions following its nuclear and long-range rocket tests.
Pyongyang has also been angered, as it is annually, by joint US-South Korean military exercises taking place south of the border.
Already known for vitriolic language, the KCNA report threatened to turn the South’s presidential residence, known as the Blue House, into a “sea of flames and ashes”.
“Artillery shells flew like lightning and intensely and fiercely struck targets simulating Cheong Wa Dae and rebel governing bodies in Seoul,” it said of the latest drill, using the Korean name for the Blue House.
It was not clear when the drill was carried out, but the report warned of a “miserable end” for President Park.
The Blue House was attacked by North Korean commandos in 1968.
The attempt to assassinate then-President Park Chung-hee was unsuccessful, but seven South Koreans and most of the 31 North Koreans attackers were killed.
In the meantime, the Philippines has released a North Korean freighter it seized nearly a month ago under tough new U.N. sanctions, after no contraband was found onboard and the ship was cleared by the United Nations, officials said on Friday.
The M/V Jin Teng, a 6,830 deadweight tonne (dwt) cargo ship with its 21 North Korean crew, left on Thursday afternoon for China after clearing immigration, customs, quarantine and port authorities, said coastguard spokesman Commander Armand Balilo.
“At the policy level, there is no more basis to continue to hold M/V Jin Teng after U.N. Security Council delisted it from the annex of UNSC Resolution 2270,” Charles Jose, a foreign ministry spokesman, said in a text message.
No team from the United Nations came to inspect the ship but local authorities did not find any contraband on board except some broken aids to navigation equipment, the coastguard said.
Tough new U.N. sanctions, passed in March to punish North Korea after its fourth nuclear test in January, blacklisted 31 ships owned by North Korean shipping firm Ocean Maritime Management Company (OMM). The sanctions aim to starve North Korea of money for its nuclear weapons programme.
But the U.N. Security Council agreed earlier this week to China’s request to remove sanctions on four ships blacklisted for ties to Pyongyang’s arms trade. China said the ships were not OMM ships and secured a commitment that the ships would no longer use North Korean crews.
The four ships included the Jin Teng, detained by the Philippines days after the sanctions took effect.
Jin Teng, flying a Sierra Leone flag, arrived in the Philippines on Feb. 27 and was unloading palm kernels when it was seized.
The Jin Teng has called at Palembang, Indonesia, and Kaohsiung, Taiwan, since the beginning of this year, ship tracking data available on the Reuters Eikon Terminal showed.
BBC with additional report from MSN
