Nothing excites Kim Jong Un more than issuing maniacal threats against the United States and its allies. At this point, North Korean regime propagandists have become experts in the art of fear-mongering. Time and time again, the histrionic regime has threatened revenge by promising extreme retaliation for perceived offenses.
This week, the regime threatened to seek revenge “thousands-fold” against the United States after the United Nations security council vote to unanimously impose new sanctions on North Korea and cut exports by $1 billion.
Being the cowards that they are, the North Koreans refused to condemn China, despite Beijing’s support for the U.N. measure. Kim Jong Un is stupid but not that stupid. He knows that his country cannot survive without the patronage of China.
Nevertheless, it’s fair to say that the Kim regime’s insane threats against the United States are deluded, given just how much of a discrepancy there is between American and North Korean firepower; it’s not even close.
Here are seven times North Korea threatened the world’s sole superpower.
1. North Korea vows a nuclear strike on the “heart of the United States” if the regime feels threatened. (July 2017)
“The DPRK legally stipulates that if the supreme dignity of the DPRK is threatened, it must preemptively annihilate those countries and entities that are directly or indirectly involved in it, by mobilizing all kinds of strike means including the nuclear ones,” reported state-run Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) in July, citing a spokesperson from the Foreign Ministry’s office. “Should the U.S. dare to show even the slightest sign of attempt to remove our supreme leadership, we will strike a merciless blow at the heart of the US with our powerful nuclear hammer, honed and hardened over time.”
2. North Korea threatens nuclear strike if “provoked” by the U.S. Navy. (April 2017)
“Our revolutionary strong army is keenly watching every move by enemy elements with our nuclear sight focused on the U.S. invasionary bases not only in South Korea and the Pacific operation theater but also in the U.S. mainland,” said North Korea’s official Rodong Sinmun newspaper in April.
3. North Korea threatens to attack America with “lighter and smaller” nukes. (March 2013)
“Now that the U.S. imperialists seek to attack the DPRK with nuclear weapons, it will counter them with diversified precision nuclear strike means of Korean style,” said the government of North Korea in a March 2013 statement. “The army and people of the DPRK have everything including lighter and smaller nukes unlike what they had in the past.”
4. North Korea not only claims that war is imminent, but that the country’s military has been given the final authorization to use nukes on the U.S. (April 2013)
America’s “reckless nuclear threat” will be “smashed by strong will of all the united service personnel … and cutting-edge smaller, lighter and diversified nuclear strike means,” said a government statement published by by KCNA news agency in April 2013.
The statement added:
The moment of explosion is approaching fast…
[War could break out] today or tomorrow…
The merciless operation of our revolutionary armed forces in this regard has been finally examined and ratified.
5. North Korea threatens to burn Manhattan “down to ashes” with a hydrogen bomb set atop a nuclear missile. (March 2016)
Citing its in-house nuclear scientist Cho Hyong Il, North Korean state media reported, “If this H-bomb were to be mounted on an intercontinental ballistic missile and fall on Manhattan in New York City, all the people there would be killed immediately and the city would burn down to ashes.” The report stressed the hermit kingdom’s apparent technological advances. “Our hydrogen bomb is much bigger than the one developed by the Soviet Union. …The H-bomb developed by the Soviet Union in the past was able to smash windows of buildings 1,000 kms away and the heat was strong enough to cause third-degree burns 100 kms away,” state media added.
6. North Korea threatens to strike Austin, New York City, and Los Angeles in a chart labeled “U.S. mainland strike plan.” (March 2013)
In March 2013, a chart “U.S. mainland strike plan” appeared on state-controlled Rodong newspaper. The chart targeted three American cities for annihilation: Austin, New York City, and Los Angeles.
“Inexplicably, among the obvious choices of prime target cities like New York, Washington DC and Los Angeles, people around the world were shocked to find the western cultural hub best known for music festivals and smug hipsters,” noted the Daily Mail at the time.
Here’s the chart, courtesy of The Mail:
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7. North Korea threatens “strongest military counteraction” if U.S. continues to conduct drills with South Korea. (August 2015)
“Such large-scale joint military exercises … are little short of a declaration of a war,” said North Korea’s Committee for the Peaceful Reunification of Korea, the government committee that is in charge of cross-border issues.
“[North Korea] is the invincible power equipped with both latest offensive and defensive means unknown to the world including nuclear deterrence,” stressed the committee. Joint U.S.-South Korean exercises may force North Korea to “retaliate against the U.S. with tremendous muscle.”
