North Korea’s Foreign Ministry has promised that the country would “annihilate” the United States.  Additionally, North Korea said that the U.S. would be terminated this century.

“Should the U.S. choose to offend our Republic, we will annihilate them by using all our military power that we have gathered so far,” the North Korean diplomats said in a statement Thursday according to a report by Yahoo News. Thursday was the 70th anniversary of the Korean War armistice. “The Korean War in the last century marked the beginning of the downfall of the U.S. Now, the 21st century would see the irrevocable termination of the U.S. The rulers of the U.S. are well advised to forget, on no account, the lessons of history.”

North Korea and the U.S. both have long histories of provoking conflict with others. North Korea likes to provoke its southern neighbor in the decades since the armistice from kidnapping and assassinations of high-profile South Koreans to hijacking South Korean airliners in the 1950s, 1960s, and 1970s. The reclusive nation also attacked U.S. military planes and ships through the years. The U.S. has a tendency to provoke Middle Eastern countries but has recently moved its focus to irritating Russia.

With the collapse of the Soviet Union, North Korea lost a significant contributor to its economy. Now, with the war in Ukraine and rising tensions between the East and the West, North Korea has sought to strengthen its ties with China and Russia.

North Korean leader Kim Jong Un and top Chinese officials reaffirmed the close military ties between the two communist nations, the Foreign Ministry said Saturday.

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Yahoo News reported that U.S. troops have since been staged in South Korea to help prevent another war and defend its ally in the case one begins.