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North Korea: Nuclear Weapons Are Not A Monopoly Of The U.S.

North Korea: Nuclear Weapons Are Not A Monopoly Of The U.S.
Reuters
FILE - In this July 27, 2013 file photo, North Korean leader Kim Jong Un, second left, flanked by Yang Hyong Sop, right, vice president of the Presidium of North Korea's parliament, and Choe Ryong Hae, vice Marshal, left, as he tours the newly opened Fatherland Liberation War Museum as part of celebrations for the 60th anniversary of the Korean War armistice in Pyongyang, North Korea. A campaign within the United Nations to haul North Korean leader Kim Jong Un before an international court for crimes against humanity has touched off a defensive fury in Pyongyang, where itâs being treated like a diplomatic declaration of war - an aggressive act aimed not only at shutting down prison camps but also at removing Kim and dismantling his familyâs three-generation cult of personality. (AP Photo/Wong Maye-E, File)
FILE - In this July 27, 2013 file photo, North Korean leader Kim Jong Un, second left, flanked by Yang Hyong Sop, right, vice president of the Presidium of North Korea's parliament, and Choe Ryong Hae, vice Marshal, left, as he tours the newly opened Fatherland Liberation War Museum as part of celebrations for the 60th anniversary of the Korean War armistice in Pyongyang, North Korea. A campaign within the United Nations to haul North Korean leader Kim Jong Un before an international court for crimes against humanity has touched off a defensive fury in Pyongyang, where itâs being treated like a diplomatic declaration of war - an aggressive act aimed not only at shutting down prison camps but also at removing Kim and dismantling his familyâs three-generation cult of personality. (AP Photo/Wong Maye-E, File)

SEOUL, Feb 27 (Reuters) - North Korea ramped up its threatening language against the United States on Friday, days before the start of annual joint U.S.-South Korean military exercises that often trigger an angry response from Pyongyang.

North Korea regularly protests the annual exercises, which it calls a rehearsal for war, and has recently stepped up its own air, sea and ground military exercises, amid a period of increased tension between the rival Koreas.

"The DPRK will wage a merciless sacred war against the U.S. now that the latter has chosen confrontation," the country's official KCNA news agency said, quoting from an article in the ruling Workers' Party newspaper, the Rodong Sinmum.

DPRK is short for Democratic People's Republic of Korea, the country's official name.

"Nuclear weapons are not a monopoly of the U.S.," the article said. "The U.S. is seriously mistaken if it thinks its mainland is safe."

North Korea frequently makes such threats against the United States and South Korea, which said on Tuesday the two would begin eight weeks of joint military drills from March 2.

On Friday it said the United States was "much upset by the fact that there may be a sign of detente on the Korean peninsula, thanks to the DPRK's initiative and efforts to achieve peace this year."

However, overtures for dialog by both Koreas in recent months have stalled, with Pyongyang recently describing inter-Korean relations as "inching close to a catastrophe."

(Reporting by Tony Munroe; Editing by Clarence Fernandez)

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In this June 19, 2014 photo, a North Korean man pushes his bicycle to a village in North Korea's North Hamgyong province. (AP Photo/David Guttenfelder)
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In this June 20, 2014 photo, North Korean people rest next to the railroad tracks in a town in North Korea's North Hamgyong province. (AP Photo/David Guttenfelder)
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In this June 19, 2014 photo, smoke stacks of a factories stand behind a compound wall along a street in the city of Chongjin, North Korea. (AP Photo/David Guttenfelder)
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