North Korea Says 'Nukes Are Our Life,' US Deploys Stealth Fighter Jets to South

In what was sadly not some early nuanced satire for April Fools' Day, North Korea announced Sunday that "nuclear armed forces [are] the nation's life" amid constantly rising tensions in the region. 

Threats from the insular country have become as routine as the sunrise. Just one day after North Korea declared it had set its military to "ready for combat" against the U.S., Pyongyang made the proclamation while leader Kim Jong Un held an annual plenary meeting with the central committee of the ruling Workers' Party, intended to establish a "new strategic line" for the country's economy and armed forces.

Nuclear weapons "are neither a political bargaining chip nor a thing for economic dealings to be presented to the place of dialogue or be put on the table of negotiations aimed at forcing (Pyongyang) to disarm itself," the North Korean government said in a statement, according to Yahoo News.

North Korea's "nuclear armed forces represent the nation's life, which can never be abandoned as long as the imperialists and nuclear threats exist on earth," the statement added.

As many experts on the region often point out, while the exact nuclear capabilities of North Korea remain uncertain because of the nation's intense isolation, evidence suggests that Pyongyang is still many years away from developing nuclear missiles, and doesn't currently have the proper weaponry for pulling off such far off strikes. 

Seoul's new president responded to the antagonism swiftly Monday, vowing to strike back at the North immediately if they chose to attack.

The U.S. replied to North Korea's continued saber rattling Sunday by sending F-22 Raptors to fly missions over South Korea as part of what it said were ongoing joint military exercises between America and South Korea, a senior U.S. defense official said, according to CNN.

"The (Democratic People's Republic of Korea) will achieve nothing by threats or provocations, which will only further isolate North Korea and undermine international efforts to ensure peace and stability in Northeast Asia," announced the U.S. military in a statement. "The North Korean leadership is urged to heed President Obama's call to choose the path of peace and come into compliance with its international obligations."

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 and U.S. targets, and more. North Korea has continued to ratchet up its aggressive rhetoric on a near-daily basis ever since its third nuclear test launch in February. 

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. 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 Friday through Korean Central News Agency, a government-run media outlet.

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.