N.Korea holds simultaneous rallies in support of leader's statement

Ranking officials of North Korea's Workers' Party and military have held separate rallies in support of leader Kim Jong-un's rare statement against the U.S., state media reported Saturday.

Kim said in the statement issued Thursday he would consider taking the highest level of countermeasures against the U.S. in what is viewed as a direct response to U.S. President Donald Trump's threat to "totally destroy" the North over its nuclear and missile programs at the U.N. General Assembly two days earlier.

Choe Ryong-hae, a vice chairman of the Workers' Party, read Kim's statement during the rally of the WPK Central Committee members held at the committee office in Pyongyang on Friday. It was followed by speeches from several lower-level officials which denounced Trump's U.N. General Assembly speech and criticized him as a "lunatic gangster" and "mentally deranged dotard,"

according to the North's Korean Central Television.

Saying that Trump's harsh remarks are tantamount to a declaration of war against North Korea, they vowed to achieve final victory in the war to make him pay the price for his "absurd remarks."

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In the rally of soldiers organized by the Ministry of People's Armed Forces, Ri Myong-su, the military's chief of general staff, said in his speech: "Our style of strike warfare that we have prepared for centuries for the final battle against the U.S. imperialists will be the most desperate and treacherous war of retaliation, once it is launched."

Ri threatened to launch a merciless preemptive war if there is any sign that the "U.S. enemies" intend to attack the North and achieve the reunification of the Korean Peninsula after wiping them out. (Yonhap)