Consummate curator of simmering rage North Korea launched yet another series of verbal attacks Saturday declaring it had entered a "state of war" with the South, and threatening the U.S with nuclear war if it chose to continue provoking the isolated nation.
"From this time on, the North-South relations will be entering a state of war and all issues raised between the North and the South will be handled accordingly," announced Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) in a statement, according to NBC News. Run by the state, the KCNA often acts as a mouthpiece for Pyongyang's government.
KCNA also threatened the U.S., saying that if America ever preemptively attacked, the results "will not be limited to a local war, but develop into an all-out war, a nuclear war."
The White House met the aggressive rhetoric with dismissal, but promised North Korea it wasn't taking its persistent antagonism lightly.
"North Korea has a long history of bellicose rhetoric and threats," said National Security Council spokeswoman Caitlin Hayden in a statement. She added that the U.S. "takes these threats seriously."
"We continue to take additional measures against the North Korean threat, including our plan to increase the U.S. ground-based interceptors and early warning and tracking radar, and the signing of the ROK-U.S. counter-provocation plan," she concluded.
As many experts on the region point out, while the exact nuclear capabilities of North Korea remain uncertain because the nation's intense isolation, evidence suggests that Pyongyang is still many years away from developing nuclear missiles, and doesn't currently have weaponry to pull off such far off strikes.
Pyongyang has made a point in recent months of displaying its military brawn through open threats aimed at the U.S. and South, provocative military exercises aimed at South Korean targets, and more. North Korea has continuously ratcheted up its aggressive rhetoric ever since its third nuclear test launch in February.
North Korean leader Kim Jong Un ordered the state's military to set its missiles to "ready to strike" America and South Korea in order to "settle accounts with the U.S.," he announced through government-run media Friday.
KCNA also released a series of photos early Friday morning - one of which is the photo at the top of this article - showing Kim and his senior generals studying a set of plans for what look to be plans for an invasion of the U.S. According to NK News, that's almost certainly a "deliberate" move of intimidating propaganda by Pyongyang.
North Korea condemned U.S. stealth bomber missions over the South Thursday, calling the military terrorists, and threatening to destroy an American Air Force base in Guam. After the missions, North Korea claimed the bombers had its citizens "burning with hatred" for the U.S.
Earlier in the week, North Korea claimed it had cut a hotline with South Korea Wednesday and cautioned the United Nations that it was only a matter of time before violence erupted, saying the tensions had developed into a "simmering nuclear war." After severing another hotline earlier in the month, North Korea cut yet another link between itself and the South, ceasing operations at Kaesong, and industrial complex ran by the countries together. The complex was the last symbolic remnant of cooperation between the two Koreas.
Faced with the endless flood of hostile behavior from Pyongyang, the U.S. and South Korea signed a new military contingency pact March 21 in preparation for future North Korean "provocations."
The new joint plan addresses the possibility of a "limited attack" from North Korea, such as Pyongyang's sinking of the Choenan that left 46 sailors dead, and its shelling of Yeonpyeong Island in December 2010, Department of Defense officials said, according to the BBC. While a pact has long existed providing for U.S. support in the event of a nuclear attack on South Korea, the newly signed contingency plan will provide "immediate and decisive response" to such antagonism, said Lt. Col. Cathy Wilkinson, a Pentagon spokeswoman, according to The Wall Street Journal.