North Korea has vowed that a "salvo of missiles" will be unleashed on Guam and that it would keep its hands "closer to trigger" as U.S. drills begin with South Korea.
Reports also indicate that Pyongyang might soon test more missiles.
Kim Kwang Hak, a researcher at the Institute for American Studies of North Korea’s Foreign Ministry, issued the new threat Friday in an op-ed piece for the regime’s official KCNA news agency.
"We have already warned several times that we will take counteractions for self-defense including a salvo of missiles into waters near the U.S. territory of Guam, an advance base for invading the DPRK, where key U.S. bases are located, as the U.S. has resorted to military actions in sensitive regions, making the waters off the Korean peninsula and in the Pacific restless," Kim said.
Pyongyang’s threat came after the U.S. Navy announced Friday that the U.S.S. Ronald Reagan aircraft carrier would lead drills with South Korea next week in the Sea of Japan and the Yellow Sea, RT News reports.
The Navy said that the drills were for honing "communications, interoperability, and partnership."
In addition, two U.S. Air Force B-1B Lancer bombers flew from Guam over the Korean Peninsula Tuesday night — staging an aerial exercise in a show of force with Japanese and South Korean combat aircraft, according to reports.
North Korea first threatened Guam in August after Trump warned that the regime would "face fire and fury like the world has never seen" and that the U.S. was "locked and loaded" for Pyongyang.
Dictator Kim Jong Un briefly backed down, with officials saying that he would watch for provocation by the United States.
Tensions have only escalated since, with Trump slamming the dictator on Twitter as "Little Rocket Man" and Kim ripping the president as a "dotard."
"The U.S. military action hardens our determination that the U.S. should be tamed with fire and lets us take our hand closer to 'trigger' for taking the toughest countermeasure," researcher Kim said in Friday’s commentary.
"In case any shocking case occurs on the Korean peninsula, the U.S. will be made to hold responsibility as it is pushing the situation on the peninsula to the point of explosion while going reckless, being carried away by ill-advised bravery."
Kim also bashed Trump's social media use.
"What should not be overlooked is that such military moves have been conducted at a time when the Trump group posted on Twitter such letters reading that the US failed to handle North Korea for the past 25 years and only one thing will prove effective, while frequently hinting at 'military option' backed by such rubbish as 'a calm before a storm' and 'total destruction,'" he said.
"It's senseless military provocations make us keenly realize once again that we were quite right when we decided to bolster the nuclear deterrence for self-defense in every way, and harden our conviction that we have to keep to this path forever," Kim said.
In addition, South Korean media reported Saturday that satellite images showed North Korea transporting ballistic missiles mounted on launchers out of hangars near Pyongyang, according to The Telegraph.
The South Korean reports cited a government source.
U.S. military officials, according to the Seoul source, believe the activity could indicate that Pyongyang is preparing to test an inter-continental ballistic missile or an intermediate-range ballistic missile, the Telegraph reports.
Further, The Associated Press reported Friday that the South Korean weather agency detected a fourth small earthquake near Pyongyang’s nuclear test site.
However, unlike quakes associated with nuclear tests, they said the tremor did not appear to be man-made.
The quake was the fourth to be observed since Pyongyang's Sept. 3 nuclear test, which caused a 6.3-magnitude earthquake.
The tremors and landslides near the test site likely mean that North Korea’s sixth and largest blast — the regime claimed it had tested a hydrogen bomb — has destabilized the region, experts said.
They added that the Punggye-ri nuclear test site might not be used much longer for testing nuclear weapons.