N Koreans Hold Anti-US Rally, Vow Revenge Marking Korea War Anniv.

By Staff, Agencies

Nearly 120,000 mostly young North Koreans have taken part in mass rallies held in the capital Pyongyang, censuring US “imperialism” and vowing a “war of revenge” against it while marking the 73rd anniversary of the Korean War.

Photos of the event published Monday by the official Korea Central News Agency [KCNA] showed a stadium crowded with people with many marching and shouting slogans and some carrying placards reading: “Entire US mainland is within our shooting range” and “The imperialist US is the destroyer of peace.”

North Korea now had “the strongest absolute weapon to punish the US imperialists” and the “avengers on this land are burning with the indomitable will to revenge the enemy,” the KCNA report further stated.

The Korean War between the US-led forces in the South and the China-backed North began on June 25, 1950, and continued for three years, leading to the killing of an estimated two million people and ending in a truce instead of a peace treaty.

The commemorative events on Sunday came as Pyongyang tested numerous missiles and other weapons earlier in the year and attempted last month to launch its first surveillance satellite into orbit that ended in failure, though Pyongyang pledged to re-launch the satellite on a yet unspecified date.

The North has maintained that its weapons and nuclear programs are essential deterrent measures in the face of persisting war games carried out near its waters by US and South Korean military forces, which it regards as rehearsals to invade the country.

Meanwhile, in a separate report released by North Korea’s foreign ministry, Pyongyang accused Washington of “making desperate efforts to ignite a nuclear war” and blamed the US for sending strategic assets to the region.

The so-called denuclearization talks that got underway after a high-profile summit between North Korean Leader Kim Jong-un and former US president Donald Trump have stalled since 2019 over persisting US-led sanctions against the North and Washington’s refusal to reciprocate Pyongyang’s denuclearization bid.

The Biden administration has recently deployed a nuclear-armed warship to South Korea, further inciting the North to continue and expand its nuclear weapons program.