North Korea yesterday raised the ante in its showdown with the rest of the world by threatening to launch nuclear weapons if provoked.
"Our nuclear deterrent will be a strong defensive means . . . as well as a merciless offensive means to deal a just retaliatory strike to those who touch the country's dignity and sovereignty even a bit," said the commentary, carried by the Korean Central News Agency.
Tensions in the region were already high as a result of North Korea's recent atomic test blast and the sentencing of two American journalists to 12 years of hard labor.
But a former North Korean official said the journalists, Laura Ling and Euna Lee, won't be sent to a typical gulag because the hard-line regime doesn't want them to witness the brutality there.
ANDY SOLTIS, NY Post, 6/10/09
