SEOUL: North Korea's new leader Kim Jong-Un has visited the naval unit that captured a US spy ship in 1968, the official news agency said Friday, amid tensions over its planned satellite launch.
Any attempt to intercept the satellite would be "an act of war", the North said late Thursday after South Korea and Japan prepared to shoot down the rocket should it fall towards their territory.
In the latest of a series of military visits, Kim inspected Navy Unit 155 in the southeastern province of Kangwon and highly praised its past feats, the agency said.
It "startled the world" by sinking the US heavy cruiser Baltimore with just four torpedo craft during the 1950-53 Korean War and also captured the US spy ship Pueblo, it said.
Kim "stressed the need for the seamen of the unit to firmly take over the baton of the revolutionary forerunners (and) send the enemies into the bottom of the sea if they dare intrude into the territorial waters".
The North captured the spy ship with 83 crew members after it allegedly intruded into its territorial waters, sparking a Cold War crisis.
Any attempt to intercept the satellite would be "an act of war", the North said late Thursday after South Korea and Japan prepared to shoot down the rocket should it fall towards their territory.
In the latest of a series of military visits, Kim inspected Navy Unit 155 in the southeastern province of Kangwon and highly praised its past feats, the agency said.
It "startled the world" by sinking the US heavy cruiser Baltimore with just four torpedo craft during the 1950-53 Korean War and also captured the US spy ship Pueblo, it said.
Kim "stressed the need for the seamen of the unit to firmly take over the baton of the revolutionary forerunners (and) send the enemies into the bottom of the sea if they dare intrude into the territorial waters".
The North captured the spy ship with 83 crew members after it allegedly intruded into its territorial waters, sparking a Cold War crisis.
