A MILITARY expert says that some of North Korea’s military weapons it has put on display are fake, as North Korea’s Youth League vowed to use five million children “equipped with nuclear bombs” to “mercilessly wipe out” the USA.

Michael Pregent, a former US Army Intelligence Officer, told Fox News that some of the missiles held by soldiers during Pyongyang’s April 15 military parade

“This was more about sending a message than being combat effective,” he said.

Pregent, who is now an adjunct fellow at the Hudson Institute in Washington, D.C., looked at several photos of North Korean soldiers from the April 15 parade to make his assessment.

Special operations “commandos” were seen to be carrying what appeared to be AK-47’s with grenade-launching capabilities.

But Pregent said what many people believed to be grenade launchers are known as “helical” magazines. This is a piece of equipment that organises rounds in a spiral shape to maximise capacity. It is notorious for jamming.

He said these magazines have a high-failure rate, and he wonders whether any of the rifles were actually loaded, as ammunition manufacturing is a serious issue for the country.

Pregent also claims that the type of sunglasses being worn by the North Korean troops “looks like a flat-face frame, and that’s not ballistic. That would wraparound and would also protect your eyes”.

Pregent also added that the fingerless gloves worn by some of those soldiers are more for show. “Some of our guys do have them, but most guys go all the way with full gloves based on the heat of the barrel from a round, not to mention they’re fire resistant if you need to pick up something,” he told Fox News.

He also said that the oversized projectiles added to the end of some of those soldiers’ rifles were “laughable.”

“If you look, you can see the plastic is over the muzzle,” Pregent said.

Despite this, Pregent said that some of the weapons still could be real, but the projectiles themselves would have to be fake “because Kim Jong Un doesn’t want them to launch one at the viewing stand”.

Pregent also told Fox News the silver-plated rifles held by some of the soldiers also seemed unrealistic.

“Saddam had gold plated handguns, and even he wouldn’t give them to his troops, so these are most likely painted,” Pregent said.

His claims come as the youth wing of Kim Jong-un’s government has vowed to “annihilate all aggressors and provokers on the Earth”.

North Korea’s Youth League vowed to use five million children “equipped with nuclear bombs” to “mercilessly wipe out” the US.

A statement from the League says its members will “wipe out the enemies” with “invincible nuclear force”.

The organisation also vows to “display fireworks of the final victory”.

The Youth League dates back to 1946 when it was founded by Kim Il-Sung, North Korea’s supreme leader and grandfather of present-day leader Kim Jong-un.

Kim Jong-un remains chairman of the Youth League and the organisation is tasked with encouraging children over 15 into production, construction and military service.

CHINA FUMES OVER MISSILE DEFENCE SYSTEM

US TROOPS have begun delivering a missile defence system to a deployment site in South Korea in a move that has infuriated China.

Washington is urging Beijing — Pyongyang’s sole major ally — to do more to rein it in, but the Asian giant has reacted with fury to the planned installation of the Terminal High Altitude Area Defence (THAAD) system.

The US and ally South Korea say its deployment, agreed last year, is intended to guard against missile threats from the nuclear-armed North.

But China fears it will weaken its own ballistic capabilities and says it upsets the regional security balance.

TV footage showed large trailers in camouflage paint carrying what appeared to be missile-related equipment entering a former golf course in the southern county of Seongju on Wednesday morning.

THAAD “will be operational in the coming days and able to better defend South Korea against the growing North Korean threat,” Admiral Harry Harris, who heads Pacific Command, told politicians in Washington.

Hundreds of residents — who are concerned over the potential environmental impact — protested angrily, some clashing with police. More than 10 were injured including three who were hospitalised, activists said.

Seoul’s defence ministry said Wednesday’s move was aimed at “securing operational capability of the THAAD as soon as possible”, with a goal of fully installing the batteries by the end of this year.

The South is holding a presidential election next month to choose a successor to ousted leader Park Geun-hye, and Seoul and Washington are pressing ahead with the deployment with some candidates ambivalent over the system — including frontrunner Moon Jae-in, of the left-leaning Democratic Party.

His spokesman Park Kwang-on expressed “strong regret” at the delivery, saying it ignored “required procedures”.

“This move has shut off any room for policy considerations by the next government and it is very improper,” he said.

Beijing condemned the move, with foreign ministry spokesman Geng Shuang telling reporters the THAAD deployment “severely undermines China’s strategic security interests”.

“It helps in no way to achieve the denuclearisation of the peninsula and regional peace and stability,” he said, adding China would “take necessary measures to safeguard its own interests”.

Beijing has imposed a host of measures seen as economic retaliation against the South, including a ban on tour groups.

Retail conglomerate Lotte, which previously owned the golf course, has also been targeted, with 85 of its 99 stores in China shut down, while South Korea’s biggest automaker Hyundai Motor said Wednesday its Chinese sales fell 44 per cent last month.

US TESTS UNARMED INTERCONTINENTAL MISSILE

The US military has launched an unarmed intercontinental ballistic missile from California in a test of a weapon system which forms part of its nuclear force.

The Minuteman 3 missile blasted off in the early hours of Wednesday morning from Vandenberg Air Force Base, delivering a single re-entry vehicle to a target some 6,759km away in the Pacific Ocean.

Colonel John Moss, commander of Vandenberg’s 30th Space Wing, said in a statement the launch was an important demonstration of the nation’s nuclear deterrent capability.

Operational tests of the missile are conducted regularly but the timing of the launch comes amid growing tensions with North Korea.

US MAY RELIST N KOREA AS TERROR SPONSOR

The United States is considering restoring North Korea to its state sponsors of terrorism list, a senior White House official said overnight.

It comes after US Secretary of State Rex Tillerson last week revealed the US was mulling whether to restore North Korea to the list of state sponsors of terrorism.

“We’re reviewing all of the status of North Korea, both in terms of state sponsorship of terrorism as well as all the other ways in which we can bring pressure to bear on the regime in Pyongyang to reengage, but reengage with us on a different footing than the past talks have been held. So yes, we are evaluating all of those options,” he said at a press conference.

The Bush administrationremoved North Korea from the list in 2008 in a desperate bid to salvage a nuclear deal that seemed on the verge of collapse.

Iran, Sudan and Syria are currently on the list. All are penalised with sanctions, including restrictions on US foreign assistance, a ban on defence exports and sales, certain controls over exports of dual use items, and miscellaneous financial and other restrictions, according to the State Department website.

N KOREA ‘PROVOCATIVE AND BELLIGERENT’

Australian Foreign Affairs Minister Julie Bishop has ramped up her condemnation of North Korea, saying it is “provocative and belligerent”.

Speaking on Wednesday in Tallinn, Estonia, Ms Bishop said North Korea has disregarded international law, violated UN Security Council resolutions on numerous occasions, and is “causing great tension in our region, that’s why Australia and others have called North Korea to change its behaviour”.

Amid rising tensions between North Korea and South Korea and the United States, Australia wants “to see a denuclearised Korean Peninsula,” she added.

The Turnbull government has said North Korea does not currently have nuclear weapons capable of reaching Australia.

However, some news reports say North Korea has identified the Australian city of Darwin as a target because US Marines are using it as a training hub.

The Australian government and Pyongyang have traded a series of insults over the past week.

On Saturday Pyongyang said Australia was “blindly and zealously toeing the US line” and accused Ms Bishop of “spouting a string of rubbish against the DPRK over its entirely just steps for self-defence”.

It was in response to earlier comments made by Ms Bishop which called for sanctions on the rogue state.

KIM JONG-UN ‘MUST COME TO HIS SENSES’

A top US admiral said America wants to bring North Korean leader Kim Jong-un to “his senses,” as senators attended an extraordinary briefing at the White House.

Admiral Harry Harris, who heads the Pacific Command, welcomed recent efforts by Beijing to try to defuse soaring tensions between Pyongyang and Washington, and suggested a non-military solution remained the preferred outcome.

“In confronting the reckless North Korean regime, it’s critical that we’re guided by a strong sense of resolve, both privately and publicly, both diplomatically and militarily,” he said. “All options are on the table. We want to bring Kim Jong-un to his senses, not to his knees.”

Meanwhile, all 100 senators filed onto charter buses for a short ride to the White House, after being summoned to receive a classified briefing on North Korea and its nuclear weapons program. The executive mansion is an extremely rare venue for such an event.

The briefing was being led by Pentagon chief Jim Mattis, Secretary of State Rex Tillerson, Director of National Intelligence Dan Coats and General Joe Dunford, who is America’s top officer and chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff.