Pak Rim-su, a North Korean delegate to the Korean Demilitarized Zone, warned US General James Thurman on Saturday that a joint American and South Korean military exercise would "meet a miserable destruction" if it goes through this March. In a rare phone call to a US General, Pak reportedly (reported by KCNA, the North Korean state news agency, so who knows?) told the general that, "If your side ignites a war of aggression by staging the reckless joint military exercises...at this dangerous time, from that moment your fate will be hung by a thread with every hour." And also that he better "bear in mind that those igniting a war are destined to meet a miserable destruction."
The exercise, which includes over 200,000 American and South Korean troops, will practice land, sea, and air tactics. While Washington and Seoul maintain that the exercises are only defensive, North Korea believes they are rehearsals for an invasion of the DPRK.
North Korea defied the United Nations two weeks ago when it tested its third nuclear weapon. While threatening to destroy 10,000 US troops and actually doing it are two vastly different things (the latter being insane and terrifying), North Korea does have a habit of doing insane and terrifying things.