TEHRAN, YJC. -- The White House on Wednesday told North Korea to stop making threats after the isolated state dramatically upped its warlike rhetoric and said it had approved nuclear strikes on the United States.
"North Korea should stop its provocative threats and instead concentrate on abiding by its international obligations," said National Security Council spokeswoman Caitlin Hayden.
The North Korean military said on Wednesday that "the moment of explosion is approaching fast," warning that war could break out "today or tomorrow."
Pyongyang’s latest pronouncement came as Washington scrambled to reinforce its Pacific missile defenses, preparing to send ground-based interceptors to Guam and dispatching two Aegis class destroyers to the region.
Tension was also high on the North’s heavily-fortified border with South Korea, after Kim Jong-Un’s isolated regime barred South Koreans from entering a Seoul-funded joint industrial park on its side of the frontier.
In a statement published by the state KCNA news agency, the Korean People’s Army general staff warned Washington that U.S. threats would be "smashed by... cutting-edge smaller, lighter and diversified nuclear strike means”.
"The merciless operation of our revolutionary armed forces in this regard has been finally examined and ratified,” the statement said.
Agencies