To US provocation’

North Korea’s army on Friday vowed a ‘merciless’ response to any US provocation, as tensions soar over Pyongyang’s nuclear programme and speculation mounts that it is preparing a fresh weapons test.

As hostilities in the region surged, US President Donald Trump sent an aircraft carrierled strike group to the Korean peninsula, while the North has launched a flurry of rockets.

In a statement on official news agency KCNA, the North’s Korean People’s Army said Trump had “entered the path of open threat and blackmail against the DPRK”.

Citing Washington’s recent missile strike on Syria, the typically bombastic statement boasted US military bases in South Korea and Seoul’s presidential Blue House “would be pulverised within a few minutes”.

“The closer such big targets as nuclear powered aircraft carriers come (to the Korean peninsula), the greater would be the effect of merciless strikes,” the statement added.

Earlier Friday Chinese foreign minister Wang Yi said a conflict over North Korea could break ou “at any moment”, warning there would be no winner in any war.

China, the country’s sole major ally and economic lifeline has come under increasing pres sure to curb Pyongyang’s milita rism, but Beijing fears dramatic action could cause the regime’s collapse, sending a flood of refu gees across its borders and leave the US military on its doorstep.

Trump has repeatedly said he will prevent Pyongyang from its goal of developing a nuclear tipped ballistic missile capable o reaching the mainland US.

A White House foreign policy advisor said Friday the US is assessing military options in response to the North’s weapons programmes, saying another provocative test was a question o “when” rather than “if”.

There are reports of activity a a nuclear test site in North Korea ahead of Saturday’s 105th anni versary of the birth of the coun try’s founder Kim Il-sung, fuel ling speculation of a sixth test.