North Korea on Wednesday threatened to “reduce the United States to ashes and darkness” and “sink Japan into the sea” by using nuclear weapons. “Let’s vent our spite with mobilisation of all retaliation means which have been prepared till now,” a statement by the Korea Asia-Pacific Peace Committee, which is responsible for the country’s propaganda, said.

The statement said the US should be “beaten to death as a stick is fit for a rabid dog” for supporting a United Nations resolution backing further sanctions against Pyongyang. The sanctions, which were passed on Monday in response to the isolated nation’s sixth and largest nuclear test, include a ban on textile exports and curbs on shipments of oil products.

The statement added that the four islands of the archipelago should be sunk into the sea. “Japan is no longer needed to exist near us.” It also attacked South Korea for its ties with the US and Japan, describing the country’s army as “traitors and dogs”. “Our army and people’s resentment at the South Korean puppet regime is getting stronger,” the statement said. It claimed that only if South Korea was destroyed, the two countries would be reunited.

Calling the UN Security Council was a tool in the hands of the US, the statement said the people of North Korea wanted the council “of unprincipled countries” disbanded at once.