North Korea has tonight threatened to pull out of the armistice agreement that ended the Korean War, accusingthe United States of breaking the terms of the truce.
"If the US side continues violating and misusing the armistice agreement as it pleases, there will be no need for the DPRK (North Korea) to remain bound to the AA (armistice agreement) uncomfortably," said a Korean People's Army spokesman in a statement carried by the official news agency.
Earlier today North Korea said victory would be certain for the communist state in any nuclear war with the United States thanks to Pyongyang's "army-first" political system.
"Victory in a nuclear conflict will be ours and the red flag of army-first politics will flutter ever more vigorously," state radio said, reported by South Korea's Yonhap news agency.
"Our victory is certain and the future ever more radiant," it said, touting the dominance of the army in the world's most heavily militarised society.
The million-strong Korean People's Army is the world's fifth-largest, with nearly one in 20 North Koreans in uniform and spending on defence consuming as much as a quarter of the impoverished state's annual budget.
War warnings and claims that the United States is poised to attack North Korea have been almost daily fare in Pyongyang official media, which have increased their rhetoric since a nuclear crisis erupted last year.
The standoff over North Korea's suspected nuclear programme has been simmering since October, when Washington said Pyongyang had admitted to pursuing a programme to enrich uranium in violation of major international treaty commitments.
Since then, North Korea has expelled UN nuclear inspectors and withdrawn from the treaty which aims to curb the spread of nuclear weapons and said it was ready to restart a mothballed reactor capable of producing plutonium for bombs.
Pyongyang has insisted that it only intends to produce electricity for its decrepit economy and that the nuclear row is a bilateral dispute with Washington that can only be solved through two-way talks leading to a non-aggression treaty.