North Korea has threatened the U.S. "with extreme muscle" if they continue with the multinational military exercises in Seoul. The military exercises with South Korea will include forces from Australia, Canada, Colombia, Denmark, France, New Zealand and the United Kingdom, starting on Monday and will last 12 days, concluding August 28 according to CNN.
South Korea conducts the yearly exercises, called Ulchi Freedom Guardian, with the United States and other allies "to enhance readiness, protect the region and maintain stability on the Korean peninsula," according to a statement from the Korea-U.S. Combined Forces Command.
Each year, along with the impending annual military exercises comes North Korea annual threats, but this year the threats have taken on a more serious tone. Perhaps taking a page from ISIS' book of terrorist techniques, Jong-un is threatening to attack the U.S. on its own soil.
A large point of contention between South and North Korea is South Korea's loudspeakers that routinely broadcast anti-Pyongyang propaganda messages across their shared borders. These broadcasts are the equivalent of a declaration of war, North Korea's army said in a statement, according to FOX News. The failure to take down loudspeakers would result in "an all-out military action of justice, to blow up all means for anti-North psychological warfare."
North Korea has dismissed South Korea's claims that North Korea had planted three land mines in the demilitarized zones between the two countries that left two South Korean soldiers severely wounded. North Korea dismissed all allegations that it had planted the devices. "If our military wanted a provocation for a military purpose, we would have used our mighty firepower instead of fiddling with three land mines," North Korean authorities said according to USA Today.
