North Korean Missiles spotted in 'launch position

North Korea has stated that it is ready to launch a military strike on its southern neighbor should South Korean authorities do not give up their confrontational policies.

“Our arms are ready to fire and the exact coordinates are put into the warheads. Once we push the button, it will be fired and the strongholds of our enemies will be turned into a sea of flames,” an anchorwoman for the North Korean state television said on Thursday.

Meanwhile, North Korea has raised at least one missile into its upright firing position, fueling concerns that a launch could happen anytime soon..........

The United States and South Korean militaries have been watching movements of mobile ballistic missiles on the eastern coast of North Korea closely.

The Korean Peninsula has been locked in a cycle of escalating military rhetoric following the participation of nuclear-capable US B-52s and B-2 stealth bombers in recent joint military drills with South Korea.

On April 9, North Korea urged all foreign institutions, enterprises, and tourists in South Korea to leave the country, warning that the Korean Peninsula was nearing a ‘thermonuclear war’.

On March 30, North Korea declared that it was in a “state of war” with South Korea. Pyongyang warned that if Washington and Seoul launched a preemptive attack, the conflict would “not be limited to a local war, but develop into an all-out war, a nuclear war.”

Korean Crossroads: US wish for pre-emptive action-Prelude to global warfare

The real threat of the escalation of hostilities on the Korean peninsular - and consequently the world - comes not from North Korea, but from the United States itself, political analyst Michel Chossudovsky told RT.

The director of the Centre for Research on Globalization (www.globalresearch.ca) and professor of economics at the University of Ottawa believes it is the US which is trying to light a match.

"Just a few weeks ago it was revealed that the Pentagon had implemented a so-called playbook, which was to ratchet up tension with North Korea. During the war games it has dispatched [nuclear capable planes]... We have to put it in historical perspective, because these threats have been ongoing for more than half a century, since the end of the Korean War," he said.

Chossudovsky also added that it does not seem at all that the world is serious in its intentions at curbing nuclear threats as such: "Looking at US nuclear doctrine, we have a $32 billion refurbishing of nuclear weapons, which is barely acknowledged by the mainstream media. We have a $10 billion refurbishing of tactical nuclear weapons, which can be launched from a B-2 bomber, which have currently been deployed. And then we have a Senate decision which says that nuclear weapons are harmless to the surrounding civilian population and can be used in the conventional war theater."

When asked what tactics could possibly be implemented to avert the current crisis, Chossudovsky said that he sees a way out if "the people across the land, in Western countries, come to realize that the United States and NATO are a threat to global security, and if they wish to wage a pre-emptive nuclear war on any country in the world, that is a prelude to global warfare."