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SEOUL, South Korea — North Korean state media said Monday that Pyongyang had carried through with a threat to cancel the 60-year-old armistice that ended the Korean War.

Meanwhile, officials with the Korean People’s Army branded the United States an “arch criminal” and said they would “finally settle accounts with those who infringe upon [North Korea’s] independent dignity.”

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“It is the final conclusion and will of the DPRK to settle accounts with the U.S., the sworn enemy of the Korean nation, with arms only,” officials told rallies in North Phyongan and South Hwanghae, according to the Korean Central News Agency.

Enraged over the South’s joint military drills with the U.S. and recent UN sanctions, Pyongyang has piled threat on top of threat, including vows to launch a nuclear strike on the U.S. Seoul has responded with tough talk of its own and has placed its troops on high alert.

The North Korean government made no formal announcement Monday on its repeated threats to scrap the armistice, but the country’s main newspaper, Rodong Sinmun, reported that the armistice was nullified Monday as Pyongyang had earlier announced it would.