N. Korea: US will be reduced to ‘ashes and darkness’

North Korea is threatening to sink Japan beneath the sea and reduce the United States to “ashes and darkness” in response to new United Nations Security Council sanctions over Pyongyang’s latest nuclear test.

A statement on state media warns that Japan “is no longer needed to exist,” according to a Reuters report. 

“The four islands of the archipelago should be sunken into the sea by the nuclear bomb of Juche. Japan is no longer needed to exist near us,” the statement read.

“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,” it continues.

State media also called the U.N. Security Council “a tool of evil” made up of “money-bribed” nations indebted to the United States that serve as America’s lackeys.

{mosads}A spokesman for Japan’s government called the statement “completely unacceptable” and “egregious” in a press conference with reporters, according to Reuters.

“This announcement is extremely provocative and egregious. It is something that markedly heightens regional tension and is absolutely unacceptable,” Japanese Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshihide Suga said Thursday.

China responded in its own statement, urging the U.S. and its partners to make “the correct political choice as soon as possible,” and stressing a “high consensus” on reaching a peaceful solution.

“We urge the relevant directly involved parties to seize the opportunity and have the political nerve to make the correct political choice as soon as possible,” Chinese Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Hua Chunying said at a press briefing Thursday.

Earlier this month, North Korea announced its sixth and most powerful hydrogen bomb test to date. North Korea conducted two intercontinental ballistic missile tests the month prior, and has conducted numerous missile tests throughout this year. 

Pyongyang fired a missile that flew over Japan last month.