North Korea threatens Britain with "a miserable end"

North Korea threatens Britain with "a miserable end" if its armed forces joins in with American and South Korean military exercises

Forces from the UK and Australia are helping 70,000 American and South Korean troops prepare for a nuclear strike.

North Korea has threatened that Britain "faces a miserable end" if it becomes involved with the US and South Korean military exercises.

A statement by the Korean Central News Agency on Wednesday issued the ominous warning to the UK.

The nuclear-armed country has issued many threats to the US but now appears to be turning its attention to American allies including Britain.

The statement said: "We solemnly warn not only the US and the puppet group but also satellites, including the UK and Australia, which are taking advantage of the present war manoeuvres against the North, that they would face a miserable end if they join in."

The country - led by dictator Kim Jong-un - earlier this week labelled British Army soldiers nothing more than "mercenaries" for taking part.

Dramatic images on Tuesday showed armed forces playing out a mock terror drill in South Korea - brandishing guns and wearing biohazard suits.

t's since emerged that soldiers from the UK and Australia are helping 70,000 American and South Korean troops prepare for any North Korean nuclear strike.

The Korean Central News Agency - the mouthpiece of North Korea - issued a statement earlier this week denouncing the "US Imperialists and south Korean war maniacs".

It claimed the countries are jointly planning a preemptive nuclear strike.

And it added: "They kicked off the war rehearsal under the pretext of resolutely 'countering' the 'provocation by the north'.

"This is aimed to ignite a nuclear war on the Korean peninsula at any cost."

The statement notes that there are more soldiers involved in the drills than in previous - and "even mercenaries from seven vassal countries including Australia and the UK have joined them".

It described the current situation as critical - "due to the reckless north-targeted war racket of the war maniacs".

The military exercises are computer-simulated but the fresh images that have emerged this morning - showing armed troops in gas masks preparing for a gas attack on the subway - illustrate just how serious the escalation in the war of words is being taken.

While clearly posed for media, the images show armed soldiers in camouflage gear creeping through shopping centres and markets as well as treating 'actors' in some of 'gas bomb' exercise in a train carriage.

North Korea had warned of a "uncontrollable nuclear war".

Images from near Seoul have revealed South Korean soldiers and emergency services wearing protective gear in exercises as they appear to encounter "dangerous substances".

In one exercise in Goyang, north of the capital, South Korean combat policemen were shown facing "terrorists" with guns standing over people crouching on the ground with their hands over their heads.

Explosions went off as heavily armed special SWAT-style teams ordered people around and climbed down the sides of buildings by rope.

The drill comes amid more tensions over North Korea's weapons programmes, while a report it has earned millions of dollars in exports is likely to raise doubt about the impact of sanctions.

South Korean President Moon Jae-in said the joint drills, called Ulchi Freedom Guardian, were purely defensive and did not aim to increase tension on the peninsula.

"There is no intent at all to heighten military tension on the Korean peninsula as these drills are held annually and are of a defensive nature," Moon told cabinet ministers.

"North Korea should not exaggerate our efforts to keep peace nor should they engage in provocations that would worsen the situation, using (the exercise) as an excuse," he said.

The joint U.S.-South Korean drills last until Aug. 31 and involve computer simulations designed to prepare for war with a nuclear-capable North Korea.

The United States also describes them as "defensive in nature", a term North Korean state media has dismissed as a "deceptive mask".

"It's to prepare if something big were to occur and we needed to protect ROK," said Michelle Thomas, a U.S. military spokeswoman, referring to South Korea by its official name, the Republic of Korea.

North Korea views such exercises as preparations for invasion and has fired missiles and taken other actions to show its anger over military drills in the past.

North and South Korea are technically still at war after the 1950-53 Korean War ended with a truce, not a peace treaty.

North Korea's rapid progress in developing nuclear weapons and missiles capable of reaching the U.S. mainland has fuelled a surge in regional tension and U.N.-led sanctions appear to have failed to bite deeply enough to change its behaviour.

China, North Korea's main ally and trading partner, has urged the United States and South Korea to scrap the exercises.

Russia has also asked for the drills to stop but the United States has not backed down.

Speaking in Beijing, Chinese Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Hua Chunying said North and South Korea and the United States all needed to make more effort to ease tension.

"We think that South Korea and the United States holding joint drills is not beneficial to easing current tensions or efforts by all sides to promote talks," she told a daily news briefing.

Japan's Kyodo news agency reported that a confidential U.N. report found North Korea evaded U.N. sanctions by "deliberately using indirect channels" and had generated $270 million in banned exports since February.

The "lax enforcement" of existing sanctions and Pyongyang's "evolving evasion techniques" were undermining the U.N. goal of getting North Korea to abandon its nuclear and ballistic missile programmes, Kyodo quoted the report as saying.

The U.N. Security Council unanimously imposed new sanctions on North Korea on Aug. 5 that could slash its $3 billion annual export revenue by a third.

The latest sanctions were imposed after North Korea tested two intercontinental ballistic missiles in July.

U.S. President Donald Trump warned North Korea this month it would face "fire and fury" if it threatens the United States.

The North responded by threatening to fire missiles towards the U.S. Pacific island territory of Guam , but later said it was holding off while it waited to see what the United States would do next.

There will be no field training during the current exercise, according to U.S. Forces Korea.

The United States has about 28,000 troops in South Korea.

About 17,500 U.S. service members are participating in the exercise this month, down from 25,000 last year, according to the Pentagon.

U.S. Defense Secretary Jim Mattis said on Sunday the reduction in the number of U.S. troops taking part reflected a need for fewer personnel and was not because of tension with North Korea.

Other South Korean allies are also joining this year, with troops from Australia, Britain, Canada, Colombia, Denmark, the Netherlands, and New Zealand taking part.

North Korea earlier warned of a "uncontrollable nuclear war" with the US as 70,000 American and South Korean troops began the huge military training exercise today.

The rogue state said the training drills were "like pouring gasoline on fire and worsen the state of the peninsula".

The North said the drills were "reckless behaviour driving the situation into the uncontrollable phase of a nuclear war".

"The joint exercise is the most explicit expression of hostility against us, and no one can guarantee that the exercise won't evolve into actual fighting," North Korea said.

"If the United States is lost in a fantasy that war on the peninsula is at somebody else's doorstep far away from them across the Pacific, it is far more mistaken than ever," Sky News reported.

Full article with photos: mirror.co.uk