North Korea says it has moved its artillery and ballistic missiles into "combat posture" for possible use against targets in South Korea, Guam, Hawaii and the U.S. mainland.
"From this moment, the Supreme Command of the Korean People's Army will be putting in combat duty posture No. 1 all field artillery units including long-range artillery units [and] strategic rocket units that will target all enemy object in U.S. invasionary bases," the official KCNA news agency said.
KCNA said Pyongyang's forces had been "assigned to strike bases of the U.S. imperialist aggressor troops in the U.S. mainland and on Hawaii and Guam and other operational zones in the Pacific as well as all the enemy targets in South Korea and its vicinity."
The statement, which cited the participation of nuclear-capable B-52 bombers in South Korea-U.S. drills, came on the third anniversary of what South Korea says was a North Korean torpedo attack on one of its ships, which killed 46 sailors.
The Associated Press quotes Seoul's Defense Ministry as saying it hasn't seen any suspicious North Korean military activity and that officials were analyzing the North's warning.
Update at 2:25 p.m. ET: Pentagon Says 'Ready To Respond'
A Pentagon spokesman says Tuesday that the U.S. is "ready to respond to any developments."
"We're concerned about any threat raised by the North Koreans," George Little told reporters. "They need to stop threatening peace on the peninsula, that doesn't help anyone.
"We stand ready to respond to any contingency," Little said.
Update at 1:20 p.m. ET on March 29: That Photo? It's North Korean Photoshop:
It turns out that the photo at the top of this post, released by KCNA via Getty, is doctored. The Picture Show explains.
Copyright 2021 NPR. To see more, visit https://www.npr.org.