North Korea threatens to turn US and South Korean armies into a 'heap of ashes' after military exercises

North Korea has condemned the US and South Korean armies after they were spotted performing joint military exercises and threatened to turn both armies into "a heap of ashes".
The United States and South Korea kicked off their annual military exercises today, prompting warnings of retaliation from the North - in the form of a pre-emptive nuclear strike.

Tension is already heightened on the peninsula after the defection of a Pyongyang diplomat.
About 25,000 U.S. troops are joining in the Ulchi Freedom Guardian exercise, which runs until September 2.The U.S.-led U.N. Command Military Armistice Commission said it notified the North Korean army the exercises were "non-provocative" in nature.

 "From this moment, the First Strike Combined Units of the Korean People's Army are fully ready to mount a pre-emptive retaliatory strike at all enemy attack groups involved in Ulji Freedom Guardian," said the North's state-run television KRT news reader, quoting a statement of the Korean People's Army (KPA) spokesman.
"The nuclear warmongers should bear in mind that if they show the slightest sign of aggression, (North Korea) would turn the stronghold of provocation (U.S., South Korea) into a heap of ashes with a Korean-style pre-emptive nuclear strike," the KRT news reader added.


Under Kim Jong Un's leadership North Korea has become further isolated from the west.
In January a nuclear test, its fourth, and the launch of a long-range rocket in February brought tightened U.N. Security Council sanctions that Pyongyang defied with several ballistic missile launches.
North and South Korea are technically still at war because their 1950-53 conflict ended in an armistice, not a peace treaty.