
March 8th, 2013 (InsideCostaRica.com) North Korea stepped up its threats against the United States yesterday, hours before a U.N. vote that would hit the country with sweeping new sanctions.
A spokesperson for North Korea’s Foreign Ministry said his country would launch “a preemptive nuclear attack to destroy the strongholds of the aggressors.”
At a mass rally in Pyongyang on Thursday, Army Gen. Kang Pyo Yong told the crowd that North Korea is ready to fire long-range nuclear-armed missiles at Washington.
“Intercontinental ballistic missiles and various other missiles, which have already set their striking targets, are now armed with lighter, smaller and diversified nuclear warheads and are placed on a standby status,” Kang said. “When we shell Washington, which is the stronghold of evils, it will be engulfed in a sea of fire.”
North Korea earlier in the week threatened to cancel the 1953 cease-fire that ended the Korean War.
North Korea is demanding an immediate dismantling of U.S. military presence in the region and the end to the sanction effort against it.
The United States and other nations worry that North Korea’s third nuclear test, which it conducted on February 12th, pushed it closer to its goal of gaining nuclear missiles that can reach the U.S.
North Korea told its military today to prepare for “all-out war.”
UPDATE: After the unanimous passing of the latest round of sanctions by the U.N., North Korea said this morning that it was nullifying all nonaggression agreements with South Korea, with one of its top generals claiming that his country had nuclear-tipped intercontinental ballistic missiles ready to blast off.