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By Micah McCartney
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The U.S. and its allies are verging on nuclear war on a global scale, according to North Korean state media.
The official newspaper of the communist country's Workers' Party of Korea, the Rodong Sinmun, on Monday released a nationalistic article marking the upcoming anniversary of the July 27, 1953, armistice that ended hostilities in the Korean War.
The article credited North Korean founder Kim Il Sung, grandfather of current leader Kim Jong Un, with a victory over "the self-proclaimed 'strongest' U.S. imperialists and their followers" that "prevented a new world war that could have brought global disaster and catastrophe, thereby willingly safeguarding world peace."
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However, "even before the ink of the armistice agreement dried," the U.S. and South Korea began holding regular war games with an eye toward the north, which have continued to this day, the paper wrote.
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"The exercises have become increasingly blatant and cruel year by year, now boldly crossing the red line of a new nuclear world war," it said.
The "United Nations Command," which brought disaster to this land 70 years ago, has again revealed its dirty visage, with troops from follower countries and even NATO forces joining anti-North Korean war exercises.
The Rodong Sinmun article comes as Kim doubles down on its message that nuclear weapons are essential to his nation's survival, with the regime last year enshrining its nuclear weapons program in its constitution.
In June, Seoul-based news agency Daily NK cited North Korean sources as saying Pyongyang has been holding mandatory lectures impressing upon citizens the program's central role in deterring a U.S.-South Korean "war of aggression."
Though the Korean Armistice Agreement suspended open conflict on the peninsula, Pyongyang and Seoul never signed a peace treaty and technically remain at war.
Inter-Korean ties are at their lowest level in decades.
Earlier this year, the North amended its constitution to define the South as its "primary foe and invariable principal enemy," with the country carrying out a months-long series of ballistic missile tests, in violation of United Nations Security Council resolutions.
Both North and South Korea have suspended a 2018 military agreement meant to reduce tensions along their border, and the countries are increasingly engaging in a tit-for-tat using tactics reminiscent of the Cold War, from live-fire exercises near the border to balloon exchanges and loudspeakers broadcasts.
Two-thirds of South Koreans favor pursuing nuclear weapons, according to recent polling, though the government recently clarified it is not currently doing so.
Pyongyang's more assertive posture has also driven Seoul to develop security cooperation with its ally Washington and, increasingly, Tokyo, after decades of often prickly ties stemming from the legacy of the Japanese Empire's occupation in the early 20th century and a territorial dispute over a small group of islets.
The U.S. Department of Defense and the North Korean embassy in China did not immediately respond to written requests for comment.
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