TOKYO — North Korea issued an ominous new threat Monday in its campaign against South Korean President Lee Myung-bak, vowing to carry out a special military attack that would reduce parts of Seoul to ash “in three or four minutes ... by unprecedented peculiar means and methods of our own style.”

The North’s state-run news agency said the “targets are the Lee Myung-bak group of traitors, the arch criminals, and the group of rat-like elements including conservative media destroying the mainstay of the fair public opinion.”

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The statement, attributed to a “special operation action group” of the Korean People's Army, provided no additional details about how the attack might be carried out. But analysts said the statement differed from Pyongyang’s usual calls for sacred war and fiery revenge — background noise on the peninsula — because it laid out the scenario of a specific, targeted military strike.

“I suppose their threat is very concrete,” said Park Hyeong-jung, a North Korea researcher at Seoul’s Korea Institute for National Unification. “They said they will do it very soon, and this is unusual.”

The North has spent years criticizing Lee, a conservative who ended the generous aid policies of his predecessors, but it has taken sharper aim in the last week. Thousands of Pyongyang residents and army members met Friday in Kim Il Sung Square, pledging during a rally to “wipe out” Lee and his allies.

The North also revised its state-run news agency Web site, creating a banner that cycles through anti-Lee messages such as “Let Us Cut Off Windpipes of the Lee Myung-bak-led Swarm of Rats!” Recent articles also have called him “human scum” and an “underwit with 2MB of knowledge.”

“It is, therefore, a tragedy and shame for the nation to see Lee still alive,” one story said.

In recent days, Lee has publicly estimated the price ($850 million) of the North’s failed rocket launch on April 13 and said the money could have been used for several million tons of corn. He also suggested that new leader Kim Jong Eun privatize the impoverished nation’s agricultural land to stoke the economy.

Experts in Seoul on Monday speculated that the North may be planning a cyberattack or another military provocation, similar to its island-shelling or its torpedoing of a warship in 2010. But Seoul’s Defense Ministry saw no immediate change in the North’s military movements, according to the Associated Press.

Government officials in Seoul also fear that the North is preparing for another underground nuclear test, citing excavation activity visible on recent satellite images.

Exalted Pariah wrote:Its all talk, thats all it ever is. The north knows it has nukes, but no one wants to fight them because then they'll have a massive humanitarian crisis to deal with...

Archaeo wrote:If they wanted to do this they could have just pointed their last rocket towards Seoul and when it fell out of the air instead of a "it failed" it could have been a "woohoo look what we did".

a special military attack that would reduce parts of Seoul to ash “in three or four minutes ... by unprecedented peculiar means and methods of our own style.”

Jumpin Jesus wrote:I honestly dont think they will follow through with this threat. They couldent win because they know the U.S. would get involved almost immediatley... Though it would be interesting as someone else said.

Exalted Pariah wrote:@frazzeled, so they have nukes, very few in number and so weak in power the first test they did wasn't believed to be nuclear but just a bunch of regular bombs underground. They can't use them without having their "nation" being turned to glass, even without nukes, invading them wasn't an option because then the "state" collapses and you have millions of starving, impoverished refugees to deal with.

purplefood wrote:There are some fairly legitimate reasons to simply annihilate North Korea right now...

MrDwhitey wrote:

purplefood wrote:There are some fairly legitimate reasons to simply annihilate North Korea right now...

The government perhaps, but the entire country?

Samus_aran115 wrote:Another war in South East Asia? Looks like it's time to blast CCR from our helicopters and lay down some Hellfires!

God what a mess this will be if they do actually take action. Iran will take the opportunity to do whatever they need to do, and WWIII will be here faster than you can say "Nuclear Holocaust"

Samus_aran115 wrote:Another war in South East Asia? Looks like it's time to blast CCR from our helicopters and lay down some Hellfires!

God what a mess this will be if they do actually take action. Iran will take the opportunity to do whatever they need to do, and WWIII will be here faster than you can say "Nuclear Holocaust"

Exalted Pariah wrote:@frazzeled, so they have nukes, very few in number and so weak in power the first test they did wasn't believed to be nuclear but just a bunch of regular bombs underground. They can't use them without having their "nation" being turned to glass, even without nukes, invading them wasn't an option because then the "state" collapses and you have millions of starving, impoverished refugees to deal with.

North Korea issued an ominous new threat Monday in its campaign against South Korean President Lee Myung-bak, vowing to carry out a special military attack that would reduce parts of Seoul to ash “in three or four minutes ... by unprecedented peculiar means and methods of our own style.”