Where Will North Korea Bomb First? Kim Jong Un's Regime Issues Threat To US Over Possible Preemptive Strike

Kim Jong Un’s North Korea issued a threat against the United States Friday in a statement that said the U.S. should be prepared for “catastrophic consequences” if it attempts to engage Pyongyang with preemptive strikes.

The statement, titled “ U.S. should not run wild, pondering over the catastrophic consequences to be entailed by its attempt at a preemptive strike,” was published by North Korea’s state news agency KCNA.

The threat from Pyongyang is reportedly the result of U.S. indicating that preemptive strikes on the regime to curb the nuclear threat posed by Kim Jong Un, were not off the table for the country.

Read: North Korea Will Launch Rockets 'At Any Time' Kim Jong Un Pleases, Officials Say

Last week, during a trip to Seoul, at a press conference, Secretary of State Rex Tillerson said: “Twenty years of talking has brought us to the point we are today.”

“Talk is not going to change the situation,” he said, adding that preemptive military action is “on the table” if forces from the U.S. and ally North Korea are threatened by North Korea’s nuclear weapons program.

A North Korean envoy said Tuesday that Kim would launch an intercontinental ballistic missile “at any time and at any place” he pleased. The statement was followed by the failed launch of a missile off North Korea’s eastern coast Wednesday.

In response, the U.S. flew one of its most powerful long-range bombers over the Korean peninsula Wednesday. The South Korean Air Force said in a statement, “Through this exercise, the South Korean and U.S. Air Forces demonstrated their strong deterrence against North Korea's nuclear and missile threats.”

North Korea responded to the escalating tensions in the statement by saying: “If the U.S. shows even the slightest sign of a preemptive attack on the DPRK, bereft of reason, the powerful nuclear strike means of the DPRK will blow up the bases of aggression and provocation with its-style offensive and preemptive nuclear attack.”