North Korea claimed Friday the U.S. and South Korea have been plotting to murder Kim Jong-un in a suspected biochemical attack.
The reclusive state, already highly sensitive to insults aimed at its "supreme leader", said it would strike back at operatives of the CIA and Seoul’s National Intelligence Service.
Pyongyang’s Ministry of State Security alleged the North has been infiltrated by would-be terrorists sponsored by the two foreign agencies.
A ministry statement carried by North Korea’s KCNA news agency threatened to “ferret out and mercilessly destroy to the last one the terrorists”.
The report warned that Pyongyang will now launch an anti-terrorist attack to “sweep away the intelligence and plot-breeding organizations of the U.S. imperialists and the puppet clique”.
North Korea regularly denounces the longstanding military alliance between Washington and Seoul, although the statement comes at a particularly tense time.
While President Donald Trump has expressed a willingness to meet with Kim, the U.S. has also refused to rule out a preemptive strike against the North.
Speculation continues over an expected North Korean nuclear test -- which would be its sixth ever -- but experts believe Pyongyang will wait until the conclusion of South Korea’s presidential election on May 9 so as to not support conservatives running on a security platform.