North Korea keeps tensions simmering with threats and pressure

Pyongyang's latest salvo of ominous rhetoric, warning that "the moment of explosion is approaching fast," came soon after the United States had announced it was sending ballistic missile defenses to Guam, a Western Pacific territory that's home to U.S. naval and air bases. North Korea has cited those bases among possible targets for missile attacks.

South Korea, meanwhile, said it was "watching very closely" for the possibility of North Korean missile activity

The fraught situation on the Korean Peninsula stems from the North's latest long-range rocket launch in December and underground nuclear test in February.

The tougher U.N. sanctions in response to those moves, combined with joint U.S.-South Korean military exercises in the region, have prompted the regime of Kim Jong Un to ratchet up its threats in recent weeks.

According to CNN, the United States has in turn made a show of its military strength in the annual drills taking place at the moment, flying B-2 stealth bombers capable of carrying conventional or nuclear weapons, Cold War-era B-52s and F-22 Raptor stealth fighters over South Korea.

But those actions have provided fresh material for Pyongyang's rhetorical outbursts, which have portrayed the practice flights as threats against North Korea.

"The moment of explosion is approaching fast. No one can say a war will break out in Korea or not and whether it will break out today or tomorrow," a spokesman for the General Staff of the North's Korean People's Army (KPA) said early Thursday.

"The responsibility for this grave situation entirely rests with the U.S. administration and military warmongers keen to encroach upon the DPRK's sovereignty and bring down its dignified social system with brigandish logic," the KPA spokesman said in a statement published by the state-run Korean Central News Agency (KCNA).

DPRK is short for Democratic People's Republic of Korea, the official name for North Korea.

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