Story highlights
Joint U.S.-South Korean military exercises are underway
Bellicose words are typical of North Korea this time of year
Tensions on the Korean Peninsula are even higher than normal after recent action at the United Nations
CNN
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North Korea warned it would make a “preemptive and offensive nuclear strike” in response to joint U.S.-South Korean military exercises that began Monday.
The news was announced in a statement by the National Defense Commission of North Korea and published in the state-run Korean Central News Agency.
READ: N. Korea: Nukes need to be ready
“As the joint military exercises to be staged by the enemies are regarded as the most undisguised nuclear war drills aimed to infringe upon the sovereignty of the DPRK, its military counteraction will be more preemptive and offensive nuclear strike to cope with them,” the statement read.
The United States responded with a call for caution.
“We urge North Korea to refrain from provocative actions and statements that aggravate tensions and instead focus on fulfilling its international obligations and commitments,” a senior administration official said Monday. “We are closely monitoring the situation on the Korean Peninsula in coordination with our Republic of Korea allies.”
North Korea’s bellicose words are typical around the time of annual military exercises, according to CNN’s Paula Hancocks.
“They (North Korea) have threatened this before, and these kinds of threats are to be expected this time of year,” she said.
Photos: North Korea's verbal volleys
North Korea has a history of using creative language to express loathing for its enemies. Here are some of the regime's more colorful threats against the West.
March 2016: North Korea warned it would make a "preemptive and offensive nuclear strike" in response to
joint U.S.-South Korean military exercises. Pyongyang issued a long statement promising that "time will prove how the crime-woven history of the U.S. imperialists who have grown corpulent through aggression and war will come to an end and how the Park Geun Hye group's disgraceful remaining days will meet a miserable doom as it is keen on the confrontation with the fellow countrymen in the north."
Photos: North Korea's verbal volleys
March 2016: Following the imposition of strict U.N. sanctions, North Korean leader Kim Jong Un said the country's "nuclear warheads need to be ready for use at any time," the North Korean state news agency KCNA reported.
Photos: North Korea's verbal volleys
January 2016: North Korea claimed to have successfully tested a thermonuclear weapon, justifying its right to have an H-bomb on the grounds of "self defense."
Photos: North Korea's verbal volleys
September 2015: In a statement, North Korea said its nuclear arsenal was ready for use "at any time."
Photos: North Korea's verbal volleys
PHOTO:
Yonhap/AFP/Getty Images
August 2015: As forces from the U.S. and South Korea took part in joint military drills. North Korea's state media referred to the exercises, which started on August 17, as "madcap" and issued a stern warning to America: "If the U.S. ignites a war in the end, far from drawing a lesson taught by its bitter defeat in the history, the DPRK will bring an irrevocable disaster and disgrace to it."
Photos: North Korea's verbal volleys
PHOTO:
KCTV
August 2015: On August 23, as North Korean negotiators were meeting with their South Korean counterparts over current tensions, a KCTV presenter appeared on air repeating North Korea's ambitions to "destroy the warmongering South Korean puppet military."
Photos: North Korea's verbal volleys
PHOTO:
KCNA VIA KNS/AFP/Getty Images
December 2014: The
FBI said it suspected North Korea was behind a hack of Sony Entertainment, which led executives to initially cancel the theatrical release of "The Interview." The film was a comedy about an American television personality who the CIA asks to assassinate North Korean leader Kim Jong Un.
North Korea threatened "merciless" action against the U.S. if the film was released, accusing the U.S. of retaliating for the hack by shutting down North Korea's Internet access. North Korea's National Defense Commission
also called U.S. President Barack Obama "reckless" and a "monkey."
Photos: North Korea's verbal volleys
PHOTO:
PEDRO UGARTE/AFP/Getty Images
July 2014: North Korea threatens to hit the White House and Pentagon with nuclear weapons. American "imperialists threaten our sovereignty and survival," North Korean officials reportedly said after the country accused the U.S. of increasing hostilities on the border with South Korea. "Our troops will fire our nuclear-armed rockets at the White House and the Pentagon -- the sources of all evil," North Korean Gen. Hwang Pyong-So said,
according to The Telegraph.
Photos: North Korea's verbal volleys
PHOTO:
NORTH KOREAN TV/AFP/Getty Images
March 2013: Angered by tougher U.N. sanctions and joint military exercises by the United States and South Korea, the
Supreme Command of North Korea's military vowed to put "on highest alert" the country's "rocket units" that are assigned to strike "U.S. imperialist aggressor troops in the U.S. mainland and on Hawaii and Guam and other operational zone in the Pacific." Whether Pyongyang has the will to back up such doomsday talk is a perplexing question,
but there is evidence that its know-how -- in terms of uranium enrichment, nuclear testing and missile technology -- is progressing.
Photos: North Korea's verbal volleys
PHOTO:
Ed Jones/AFP/Getty Images
February 2013: In a message to the United States and South Korea,
North Korea vowed "miserable destruction" if "your side ignites a war of aggression by staging reckless joint military exercises."
Photos: North Korea's verbal volleys
PHOTO:
STringer/AFP/Getty Images
June 2012: Once again, North Korea
vowed to be "merciless" in its promised attack on the United States, this time threatening a "sacred war" as it aimed artillery at South Korean media groups. North Korea
was mad that South Korean journalists had criticized Pyongyang children's festivals meant to foster allegiance to the Kim family.
Photos: North Korea's verbal volleys
PHOTO:
PEDRO UGARTE/AFP/Getty Images
April 2012: North Korea's state-run news agency
reported that "the moment of explosion is approaching fast" and promised "merciless" strikes against the United States. "The U.S. had better ponder over the prevailing grave situation," it said. Later that month, Pyongyang
launched a long-range rocket that broke apart and fell into the sea. The launch came during preparations for a grand party that celebrated the 100th anniversary of the birth of Kim Il Sung, the founder of North Korea.
Photos: North Korea's verbal volleys
PHOTO:
JUNG YEON-JE/AFP/Getty Images
November 2011: North Korea's
military threatened to turn the capital of South Korea into a "sea of fire," according to South Korea's Yonhap News Agency.
Photos: North Korea's verbal volleys
PHOTO:
KCNA/Xinhua/Landov
2009: After the U.S. pledge to give nuclear defense to South Korea,
Pyongyang threatened a "fire shower of nuclear retaliation."
