North Korea said it will preemptively mobilize its forces and "thoroughly punish" countries for provocations, state media stated on Monday, the DPRK's military foundation day.

“Our People’s Army is an invincible and strong military with powerful war capabilities that can respond to any and all kinds of war,” the Rodong Sinmun newspaper stated in an editorial (sasol) on its front page. It added that North Korea’s army will “preemptively mobilize the most powerful offensive force to thoroughly punish [them] outside the territory of our republic if hostile forces provoke us even just a little bit.”