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.

Pyongyang's rogue atomic ambitions have come into sharp focus in recent weeks, with United States President Donald Trump vowing a tough stance against the North and threatening unilateral action if China failed to help curb its neighbour's nuclear programme.

As hostilities in the region surge Trump has sent an aircraft carrier-led strike group to the Korean peninsula to press his point, 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 that US military bases in South Korea as well as Seoul's presidential Blue House "would be pulverized 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 out "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 pressure to curb Pyongyang's militarism, but Beijing fears dramatic action could cause the regime's collapse, sending a flood of refugees 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 of reaching the mainland United States.

The US president also flexed his military muscle last week by ordering cruise missile strikes on a Syrian airbase the US believed was the origin of a chemical weapons attack on civilians in a northern Syria town.

On Thursday the US military dropped the biggest non-nuclear bomb it possesses on Afghanistan, targeting a complex used by the Islamic State group.

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 of "when" rather than "if".

There are reports of activity at a nuclear test site in North Korea ahead of Saturday's 105th anniversary of the birth of the country's founder Kim Il-Sung, fuelling speculation it could carry out a sixth test.

Troops mass in Pyongyang show of strength
Pyongyang (AFP) April 14, 2017 - North Korea's military forces were massed in Pyongyang Saturday for a show of strength by leader Kim Jong-Un as tensions mount over his nuclear ambitions.

Hundreds of flatbed trucks packed with soldiers lined the banks of the Taedong river ahead of a parade through the North Korean capital.

Ostensibly the event was to mark the 105th anniversary of the birth of Kim's grandfather, the North's founder Kim Il-Sung - a date known as the 'Day of the Sun' in the Democratic People's Republic of Korea, the country's official name.

But it is also intended to send an unmistakable message to Washington, Seoul, Tokyo and other capitals about the isolated, nuclear-armed North's military might.

Pyongyang is under multiple sets of United Nations sanctions over its atomic and ballistic missile programmes, and has ambitions to build a rocket capable of delivering a warhead to the US mainland - something US President Donald Trump has vowed "won't happen".

It has carried out five nuclear tests - two of them last year - and multiple missile launches, one of which saw three rockets come down in waters provocatively close to Japan last month.

Speculation that it could conduct a sixth blast in the coming days to coincide with the anniversary has reached fever pitch, with specialist US website 38North describing its Punggye-ri test site as "primed and ready" and White House officials saying military options were "already being assessed".

Trump has dispatched the aircraft carrier USS Carl Vinson and an accompanying battle group to the Korean peninsula.

"We are sending an armada. Very powerful," Trump told the Fox Business Network. "He is doing the wrong thing," he added of Kim. "He's making a big mistake."

China, the North's sole major ally, and Russia have both urged restraint, with Beijing's foreign minister Wang Yi warning Friday that "conflict could break out at any moment".

The North has reiterated its constant refrain that it is ready for "war" with the US.

Its army vowed Friday a 'merciless' response to any US provocation but diplomats in Pyongyang are more sanguine, pointing out that the North raises its rhetoric every spring, when Washington and Seoul hold annual joint exercises that it views as preparations for invasion.

None of the North's five previous nuclear tests have taken place in the month of April.

- 'Tough message' -

On past form, the parade will see Kim watch ranks of goose-stepping soldiers marching through Kim Il-Sung Square in the centre of Pyongyang, accompanied by tanks, missiles on trailers, and other materiel.

Military specialists keep a close eye on such events for clues about developments in the North's capabilities. Jeffrey Lewis, of the Middlebury Institute of International Studies said he was looking out for "the possibility of a new ICBM", adding: "There may be some surprises."

The 1950-53 Korean War ended in an armistice rather than a peace treaty and Pyongyang says that it needs nuclear weapons to defend itself against a possible US invasion.

The US cruise missile strike on Syria vindicated its stance, it said last weekend.

According to diplomats, North Korean officials have described the US president as "unpredictable" and been unnerved by his comments and actions.

Pyongyang could use the parade as a show of strength in preference to a nuclear test, analysts said.

It wanted to send "a tough message to the United States in response to the Trump administration's recent rhetoric and the military steps the United States has taken", said Evans Revere of the Brookings Institution in Washington.

Another missile launch or nuclear test "can't be ruled out", he said, but the Syria strike and Washington's implied threats "may give Pyongyang some pause".

"A parade is a highly visible but non-kinetic way of showing off capabilities," he told AFP.

The North is aiming its message at China as well as the US, analysts say.

Beijing has made clear its frustration with Pyongyang's stubbornness but its priority remains preventing any instability on its doorstep, and it has been unnerved by the sabre-rattling.

The state-run Global Times newspaper, which sometimes reflects the thinking of China's leadership, issued an unequivocal warning to Pyongyang in an editorial this week that it "should avoid making mistakes at this time".

Pyongyang was "upset with all of its neighbours", said Bruce Bennett of the Rand Organisation and Kim needs to "demonstrate defiance".

North Korean culture is that its leaders "are supposed to reign by power", he said. "He cannot back down without looking weak and thereby facing the prospect of a coup."

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Xi urges peaceful resolution of N. Korea tensions in Trump call
Beijing (AFP) April 12, 2017
Chinese leader Xi Jinping has urged Donald Trump to peacefully resolve tensions over North Korea's nuclear programme, as the US president touted the power of a naval "armada" steaming towards the Korean peninsula. China's foreign ministry said Wednesday the two leaders had spoken by phone, days after Trump sent the aircraft carrier-led strike group to the region in a show of force ahead of a ... read more

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