Islam Times - China rejects reports of military buildup over Koreas tensions

Islam Times - China has dismissed Western media reports of its armed forces having been placed on high alert amid the simmering tensions in the Korean Peninsula.

The denial was announced by Chinese Foreign Ministry Spokesman Hong Lei at a press conference on Wednesday.

Hong Lei also noted that “maintaining peace and stability on the (Korean) Peninsula and in Northeast Asia is China’s consistent stance.”

On Tuesday, unnamed US officials said that Chinese forces have been placed on high alert in the country’s northeastern province of Jilin bordering North Korea.

This comes amid reports of the United States sending a guided-missile destroyer, the USS Fitzgerald, to the southwestern coast of the Korean Peninsula, citing the possibility of a rocket launch by Pyongyang.

In late March, advanced, radar-evading F-22 Raptors were deployed to the main US Air Force base in South Korea in a move Washington described as part of its commitment to defend the Asian country in the face of military threats from the North.

Earlier in the month, two US nuclear-capable B-2 stealth bombers flew out of Whiteman Air Force base in Missouri and dropped dummy ordnance on targets in South Korea and completed the 13,000-mile round trip in a "single continuous mission.”

North Korea declared on March 30 that it is in a “state of war” with South Korea, warning that any provocation by Seoul and Washington will trigger an all-out nuclear war.

Pyongyang also warned that if Washington and Seoul launched a preemptive attack, the conflict "will not be limited to a local war, but develop into an all-out war, a nuclear war."