North Korea's defense minister accused the United States and South Korea on Tuesday of plotting war on the Korean peninsula and threatened to destroy the South if they attack.
Defense Minister Kim Il Chol said in a speech in Pyongyang that his army would reduce South Korea to a "sea of fire" unless "pro-American warmongers hell-bent on igniting another war" stop their "rash acts."
"A grave situation is prevailing on the Korean Peninsula due to the hostile policy of the U.S. imperialists and their followers," Kim said, according to the state Korean Central News Agency.
North Korea's communist regime from time to time issues such verbal salvos during periods of tension between the two states on the divided peninsula. It has made similar threats several times, including in late October, since a conservative government took office in South Korea in February pledging to get tougher with Pyongyang.
The bombast is regularly shrugged off in South Korea, which has lived with constant threats from the North for 55 years since the end of the Korean War.
Kim said the U.S. and South Korea were moving "to ignite a war of aggression," an accusation the North regularly levels against the security allies.
Both the U.S. and South Korea say that they have no intention of attacking and that regular military exercises are meant to prepare for any assault from the communist country.
In Seoul, a Defense Ministry official responded that he was aware of Kim's threat but said that the ministry would not raise the country's security posture. The official — speaking on condition of anonymity citing ministry policy — declined to elaborate.
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