‘We will pulverize the headquarters of evil and ruthlessly ravage US troops’: North Korea makes menacing boast it will take on Donald Trump with ‘merciless’ strikes on South Korea and US bases as China warns of 'war at any moment'
North Korea upped its warmongering with Donald Trump today in a series of menacing boasts threatening to 'ravage' US troops amid fears the two countries are heading for war.
The secretive state vowed to 'pulverize' US bases and South Korean capital Seoul if it was threatened by the US military, which is carrying out drills on the Korean peninsula. A US aircraft carrier group is steaming towards the region.
It claimed it would 'ruthlessly ravage' the US if Washington attacked. China warned the region could go to war 'at any moment'.
The rhetoric comes after North Korea warned that President Donald Trump's 'troublemaking' and 'aggressive' tweets have pushed the world to the brink of thermo-nuclear war.
Pyongyang's Vice Minister Han Song Ryol accused Trump of building up a 'vicious cycle' of tensions and warned the US against provoking North Korea militarily. He said: 'We will go to war if they choose.'
He added the country would continue developing its nuclear program and conduct its next nuclear test whenever its leaders see fit.
In the past week Trump has shown his willingness to launch military strikes, with US missiles deployed in Syria and Afghanistan.
North Korea's military said it would 'ruthlessly ravage' the United States if Washington chose to attack.
The Korean People's Army statement boasted that US military bases in the South 'as well as the headquarters of evils such as the (South Korean presidential) Blue House would be pulverized within a few minutes'.
Han's earlier comments come as tensions rise over the possibility Kim Jong-un's regime will launch another nuclear weapons test tomorrow as North Korea marks the national holiday Day of the Sun, commemorating the birth of the country's founding father Kim Il Sung.
'The US introduces into the Korean peninsula, the world's biggest hotspot, huge nuclear strategic assets, seriously threatening peace and security of the peninsula and pushing the situation there to the brink of a war,' the North's KCNA news agency said on Friday, citing the statement.
North Korea blames Trump and the US for the rising tensions, according to Han, who cited US-South Korean wargames, the deployment of a US aircraft carrier to the peninsula last weekend, as well as Trump's recent tweets on Tuesday that the North is 'looking for trouble'.
Han's remarks, on the eve of the country's biggest national holiday, the 'Day of the Sun', were released hours after a member of the Trump administration denied a report claiming the US was prepared to launch a pre-emptive strike to halt any nuclear test at the weekend.
Trump also called North Korea a 'menace' earlier this week and tweeted that if China doesn't do its part to rein in Pyongyang's nuclear ambitions, the US 'will solve the problem without them'.
Han said: 'As long as the nuclear threats and blackmail go on with the military exercises, we will carry forward with our national defense buildup, the core of which is the nuclear arms buildup.'
He also talked of a sixth nuclear test, saying: 'That is something that our headquarters decides. At a time and at a place where the headquarters deems necessary, it will take place.'
U.S. Vice President Mike Pence will travel to South Korea on Sunday in what his aides said was a sign of the U.S. commitment to its ally.
Cc: Daily mail
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