N.Korea bristles over ‘madcap’ US

SEOUL North Korea accused the United States Saturday of raising tensions to “the most extreme phase,” amid measures by Washington and Seoul to contain Pyongyang’s nuclear threat. The U.S. unveiled new sanctions against the North a day earlier, blacklisting a trading company and 11 individuals suspected of financing weapons of mass destruction. While South Korea’s foreign ministry celebrated the move, Pyongyang’s state-run media dismissed it as “foolish.” The North also denounced ongoing military drills involving American hardware and troops in South Korea. With the allies practicing for a direct strike on the reclusive state’s leadership in case of war, Pyongyang’s KCNA news agency described it as a “madcap rehearsal for carrying out the beheading operation.” Meanwhile, the same outlet reported Saturday that leader Kim Jong-un oversaw tank units gearing up to “rush, sweeping away everything in their way and destroy the enemy positions with their tanks once a war breaks out.” Seoul has recently warned of a sixth North Korean nuclear test, which experts believe could be imminent in line with next week’s summit between U.S. President Donald Trump and Chinese counterpart Xi Jinping. Pyongyang has enjoyed a decades-long alliance with Beijing but has been known to carry out provocations in line with Chinese efforts to cooperate with Seoul and Washington. Kim’s regime was hit with two rounds of United Nations Security Council sanctions for conducting a pair of nuclear tests in 2016 along with multiple missile launches.