Pyongyang steps up verbal threats ahead of US-South Korea military drills
North Korea ramped up its threatening language against the United States on Friday, days before the start of annual joint US-South Korean military exercises that often trigger an angry response from Pyongyang.
North Korea ramped up its threatening language against the United States on Friday, days before the start of annual joint US-South Korean military exercises that often trigger an angry response from Pyongyang.
North Korea regularly protests the annual exercises, which it calls a rehearsal for war, and has recently stepped up its own air, sea and ground military exercises, amid a period of increased tension between the rival Koreas.
“The DPRK will wage a merciless sacred war against the US now that the latter has chosen confrontation,” the country’s official KCNA news agency said, quoting from an article in the ruling Workers’ Party newspaper, the
DPRK is short for Democratic People’s Republic of Korea, the country’s official name.
“Nuclear weapons are not a monopoly of the US,” the article said. “The US is seriously mistaken if it thinks its mainland is safe.”
North Korea frequently makes such threats against the United States and South Korea, which said on Tuesday the two would begin eight weeks of joint military drills from March 2.
