North Korea Threatens to ‘Sink’ Japan With Nuclear Weapons

North Korea has threatened to use nuclear weapons to “sink” Japan and reduce the U.S. to “ashes and darkness” after being hit with a new round of sanctions by the United Nations this week. “Japan is no longer needed to exist near us,” the Korea Asia-Pacific Peace Committee, a state agency in charge of external ties and propaganda, declared via the state-run Korean Central News Agency early Thursday. “The four islands of the archipelago should be sunken into the sea by the nuclear bomb of Juche,” the committee said, referring to the North’s ruling ideology. “Let’s reduce the U.S. mainland into ashes and darkness. Let’s vent our spite with mobilization of all retaliation means which have been prepared till now,” the committee said. The statement comes after the United Nations Security Council voted unanimously Monday to impose a new round of sanctions on North Korea following its latest nuclear test this month.