General

North Korea threatens to annihilate U.S.

Pentagon calls it "silliness"

North Korean officials are ramping up the rhetoric in advance of military exercises off the country’s eastern coast. The country’s reclusive regime has already said it plans to fire a long-range missile in response to the international community’s criticism of its rocket launch in April, and it may also be looking to test the sanctions imposed on it after it conducted a nuclear test last month by shipping weapons to the similarly secretive regime in Myanmar. On Wednesday, North Korean authorities warned that it would consider any attempt to intercept the shipment a declaration of war. They specifically said the U.S. would be starting a second Korean War and that North Korea would “wipe out” the aggressors. U.S. authorities say they haven’t decided whether or not to request an inspection of a ship while, Pentagon spokesperson Geoff Morrell dismissed North Korea’s threat to “wipe out” the U.S. as “silliness.”

AP

New York Post